# ESA Letter in Springfield, IL: The City That Lost a Housing Case

> The Justice Department sued Springfield over a refused accommodation and won. Here is what the capital's own fair housing chapter owes an ESA letter tenant.

- Source: https://supportanimal.com/blog/illinois-emotional-support-animal/springfield/
- Publisher: Support Animal (supportanimal.com)
- Updated: 2026-08-10
- License note: informational content; not legal or medical advice.

## Key facts

- Population: 112,949
- Households renting: 35.7%
- Typical pet deposit (as a pet): Varies by building
- Typical pet rent (as a pet): Varies by building
- Breed/weight limits common: sometimes
- Pet fees, deposits, and breed limits with a valid ESA letter: none (FHA reasonable accommodation)

## The city that runs the fair housing office was taken to court

Springfield has its own fair housing chapter and its own division to enforce
it. It has also been on the wrong end of a federal disability housing case.

The United States Department of Justice sued the City of Springfield in the
Central District of Illinois. In 2020 the court held the City had violated the
federal Fair Housing Act twice over: by enforcing a zoning rule that kept
homes for people with disabilities, five residents or fewer, from sitting
within 600 feet of one another, and by refusing a reasonable accommodation
from that rule.

A jury returned a verdict of **$293,000** against the City on July 26, 2022.
On December 5, 2023 the court entered a permanent injunction stopping the City
from enforcing the spacing rule, added a civil penalty of **$61,982.50**, and
ordered the City into fair housing training.

The rule itself is off the books. Zoning code § 155.053 now reads "Reserved,"
repealed by Doc. No. 2018-055 § 1(Exh. A), adopted May 21, 2024.

You will not be citing that case at a leasing desk. It is still worth knowing.
Tenants wonder whether a refused accommodation is a real wrong or just an
awkward conversation. Here it went to a jury.

## A capital city where a third of the homes are rented

Springfield has 51,040 occupied homes and 18,243 of them are rented, a
**35.7%** renter share against 32.9% for Illinois as a whole, on the Census
Bureau's 2020–2024 five-year estimates.

Look at what sits behind it. This is the seat of state government and of
Sangamon County, so much of the rental demand comes from people who work for
one or the other. The stock leans towards houses and small conversions rather
than managed towers, which matters for a rule further down this page.

## Chapter 93 says it in the city's own words

Most Illinois tenants argue from the state statute alone. Springfield renters
have a local sentence too. Code § 93.11(c)(3)(b) makes it a civil rights
violation:

> To refuse to make reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices,
> or services, when such accommodations may be necessary to afford a person
> with a disability equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling.

That mirrors the state provision, 775 ILCS 5/3-102.1(C)(2). Neither says
"animal," and neither has to. A no-pets clause is a policy. A one-animal limit
is a rule. A pet-rent field is a practice. You are asking one of them to bend,
because bending it gives you the same use of the home anyone else gets.

## One word in the code, and where it stops

Chapter 93 contains a word the state Act never uses. Its definition of
"handicap" reaches a determinable physical characteristic which requires the
person's use of a guide, hearing or **support animal**. The narrow state
section says "dog." Springfield's says animal.

Do not build on it. That definition is tied to a *physical* characteristic. If
you live with a mental health condition, it is not your clause.

The same trap sits one level up. 775 ILCS 5/3-104.1 is titled "Refusal to sell
or rent because a person has a guide, hearing or support dog," and its
paragraph (C) forbids an extra lease charge other than for actual damage the
dog does. It looks tailor-made. It is not: the section covers a blind or
hearing impaired person, or a person with a physical disability, and stops
there.

Your provision is the accommodation duty, in both books. Disability under
775 ILCS 5/1-103(I)(1) is a determinable physical **or mental**
characteristic, which for housing need only be unrelated to your ability to
rent or keep the home.

## 180 days to Groth Street, and a wall at one year

The Fair Housing Division sits inside the Office of Community Relations at
1450 Groth Street, on 217.789.2270. That office staffs the Community Relations
Commission, eleven members appointed by the mayor under § 93.03, and its page
carries a complaint form that asks outright whether the treatment was because
of disability.

The deadline is shorter than the state's and comes in two parts. Code
§ 93.07.5(f)(1) requires charges to be filed within **180 days** after the
violation was allegedly committed, or within 180 days after you discovered it,
"but in no event later than one year after the alleged violation." The City's
own Fair Housing Know Your Rights sheet gives the same 180 days.

Read that outer wall carefully. Finding out late does not push the clock past
one year.

## Two doors that stay open longer

Missing the city window is not the end, and you never had to start there. The state allows **one year** to charge the Illinois Department of Human Rights under 775 ILCS 5/7B-102(A)(1). The Department aims to investigate in
100 days, and the statute says twice over that missing that target costs it no
jurisdiction. If your charge is dismissed you have 90 days to ask the Illinois
Human Rights Commission to look again.

Or skip the agencies. 775 ILCS 5/10-102(A)(1) gives you **two years** to sue
in circuit court, either side may demand a **jury**, and paragraph (3) says
you can file whether or not a charge was ever brought. On the table under
775 ILCS 5/8B-104: actual damages, attorney's and expert witness fees, and
civil penalties up to $16,000, $42,500 or $70,000.

If the landlord leans on you for asking, that is its own wrong under 775 ILCS
5/3-105.1, which covers coercing, intimidating, threatening or interfering
with someone exercising a fair housing right.

## No ceiling on the money, and no count on the animals

Illinois puts no number on a security deposit, a pet deposit or pet rent, and
Springfield adds none. What the city does add is aimed straight at this
situation: § 93.11(c)(3)(a) tells a landlord it **may not increase for persons
with disabilities any customarily required security deposit**, repeating
775 ILCS 5/3-102.1(C)(1).

So for an ordinary pet a Springfield landlord may charge what it likes. For an
approved assistance animal the charge fails, not because it is too big but
because pricing the accommodation is a way of refusing it.

Chapter 91, the animal control chapter, is quiet in a way that helps. Its 38
sections set no per-dwelling limit on dogs or cats, no pet fee or deposit
rule, and no assistance-animal provision. Its one animal exception is narrow:
the excrement rule does not apply to a blind person while walking a guide dog.
So a number limit in Springfield came from your lease, and a lease term is the
kind of rule § 93.11(c)(3)(b) is about.

## Moving out, and a change that landed in 2024

Approval does not make damage disappear. If the animal wrecks a carpet, you
pay for the carpet.

What 765 ILCS 710/1 controls is how that gets taken. Your landlord has 30 days
from the later of your leaving or your right of possession ending to deliver
an itemised statement of the damage with paid receipts attached. Skip that step and the whole deposit is owed back inside 45 days. If a circuit court finds a
refusal to itemise, or bad faith, the award is **twice the deposit** plus
costs and fees.

This is where Springfield's small buildings matter. That Act used to reach
only properties with five or more units. Public Act 103-224 struck the
threshold on January 1, 2024, so it now covers every residential landlord in
the state, the converted house included. A related rule kept its size test:
deposit interest under 765 ILCS 715/1 still needs 25 or more units.

## Nothing to sign up for, and the paper that does work

No Springfield office and no Illinois agency keeps a list of emotional support
animals. No card, vest or online certificate carries legal weight here. The
state's housing discrimination rule, 71 Ill. Adm. Code 2300, has eight
sections and not one mentions an animal. Illinois' analysis is statutory.

Federal law runs alongside and points the same way. The accommodation duty is
at 24 C.F.R. § 100.204, and 24 C.F.R. § 100.202(c) lets a housing provider ask
for information showing you are eligible for a benefit available to people
with disabilities.

That is the request to be ready for. What answers it is documentation from a
licensed professional who knows you and can say why the animal matters for
your condition. That is what turns a request into one Chapter 93 and the Human
Rights Act oblige your landlord to take seriously.

## Getting help a short drive from the Capitol

Land of Lincoln Legal Aid keeps an office at 1010 South Second Street on
(217) 529-8400, and its published service area covers Sangamon along with
Cass, Christian, Logan, Mason, Menard, Morgan, Scott and Shelby counties.

The Office of Community Relations takes the local complaint. The Illinois
Department of Human Rights takes the state charge and publishes plain-language
housing rights material. The Illinois Human Rights Commission is where a
dismissed charge ends up. Work to the shortest clock first, which here is the
180-day one.

## What Springfield landlords can and cannot do

**Cannot:**
- Cannot refuse to make a reasonable accommodation in rules, policies, practices or services when it may be necessary to give a tenant with a disability an equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling, under 775 ILCS 5/3-102.1(C)(2), which is what a request to waive a no-pets rule for an assistance animal asks for
- Cannot treat a mental-health disability as outside the Act, because 775 ILCS 5/1-103(I)(1) defines disability as a determinable physical or mental characteristic and the housing article adds only that it be unrelated to the person's ability to acquire, rent or maintain a housing accommodation
- Cannot demand that the animal be trained, certified, registered or of a particular species, none of which appears anywhere in the Illinois Human Rights Act. The word "animal" does not appear in the Act at all
- Cannot refuse to rent because of the disability of a person who will live in the unit or of anyone associated with the renter, not only the person signing the lease, under 775 ILCS 5/3-102.1(A)
- Cannot alter the terms, conditions or privileges of a tenancy, or the services and facilities that come with it, because of a disability, under 775 ILCS 5/3-102.1(B)
- Cannot increase for a person with a disability any customarily required security deposit, in the express words of 775 ILCS 5/3-102.1(C)(1)
- Cannot coerce, intimidate, threaten or interfere with a tenant who asks for an accommodation, or who helped someone else ask, under 775 ILCS 5/3-105.1, a separate civil rights violation from refusing the request
- Cannot keep any part of a security deposit for damage without sending an itemised statement with paid receipts within 30 days, or must return the whole deposit within 45 days, under 765 ILCS 710/1: a duty that reaches every Illinois landlord since Public Act 103-224 removed the five-unit threshold on January 1, 2024
- Cannot rely on 775 ILCS 5/3-104.1 to justify a charge, because that section is written for blind, hearing impaired and physically disabled tenants and grants a landlord nothing in any event

**Can:**
- May ask for information establishing the disability and the disability-related need for the animal where neither is obvious, the enquiry 24 C.F.R. § 100.202(c) leaves open
- May refuse an accommodation that is not reasonable. One imposing an undue financial or administrative burden, or requiring a fundamental alteration of the landlord's operations
- May hold a tenant liable for damage the animal actually causes, and may recover it from the deposit through the itemised statement 765 ILCS 710/1 requires
- May enforce the ordinary terms of the tenancy against a tenant with an assistance animal: rent, noise, cleanliness and lease conduct rules apply the same way they apply to everyone else
- May set a security deposit at any amount, Illinois capping none, and may charge pet fees and pet rent to tenants generally, since no Illinois statute regulates them, which is exactly why the accommodation, rather than a ceiling, is what removes the charge for an assistance animal

## How to get an ESA letter in Springfield

1. **Check that you qualify**, Answer a short screening about how your condition affects daily life in Springfield. No diagnosis paperwork needed up front. (About 5 minutes: free)
2. **Connect with a licensed professional**, You are matched with a provider licensed for Illinois clients who reviews your situation in a telehealth evaluation. (Telehealth evaluation)
3. **Complete your evaluation**, The professional evaluates whether an emotional support animal alleviates symptoms of a condition recognized in the DSM-5. Honest evaluations, not everyone qualifies. (Most of Our Applicants Qualify)
4. **Receive your signed letter**, Your letter arrives on the professional's letterhead with their license number: the documentation Illinois landlords may lawfully request. (Typically within days of approval)
5. **Send it to your landlord**, Submit the letter with a short reasonable-accommodation request. Pet fees, pet deposits, and breed limits no longer apply to your animal in Springfield. (Protection under FHA + state law)

## Conditions that can qualify for an ESA

No fixed government list exists. A licensed professional evaluates whether an animal alleviates symptoms of a DSM-5-recognized condition, commonly:

- Generalized anxiety disorder
- Major depressive disorder
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Panic disorder
- Social anxiety disorder
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
- Bipolar disorder
- Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
- Phobias with housing impact
- Chronic stress affecting daily function

## Housing help in Springfield

- [Springfield Office of Community Relations](https://www.springfield.il.us/Departments/CommunityRelations/CommunityRelationsHome.aspx) (municipal agency)
- [Land of Lincoln Legal Aid](https://lincolnlegal.org/locations/) (legal aid)
- [Illinois Department of Human Rights](https://dhr.illinois.gov/rights/housing-rights.html) (state agency)
- [Illinois Human Rights Commission](https://hrc.illinois.gov/) (state agency)

## Frequently asked questions

### Did the City of Springfield really lose a disability housing case?

Yes. The United States Department of Justice sued the City in the Central District of Illinois. In 2020 the court held the City had violated the Fair Housing Act by enforcing a zoning rule that kept homes for people with disabilities, five or fewer residents, at least 600 feet apart, and by refusing a reasonable accommodation from it. A jury awarded $293,000 on July 26, 2022. On December 5, 2023 a permanent injunction barred enforcement of the spacing rule, imposed a $61,982.50 civil penalty and ordered fair housing training. The spacing section, zoning code § 155.053, now reads Reserved after a repeal adopted May 21, 2024.

### How long do I have to complain to the Office of Community Relations?

You get 180 days, and Code § 93.07.5(f)(1) counts them either from the alleged violation or from the day you discovered it. An outer wall sits behind both counts: nothing may be filed more than a year after the violation, whichever count you use. That same 180-day figure appears on the City's Fair Housing Know Your Rights sheet. Bring the charge to the Fair Housing Division at 1450 Groth Street, or call 217.789.2270.

### Springfield's code says support animal. Does that cover my emotional support animal?

Be careful with that line. Chapter 93 defines handicap partly as a determinable physical characteristic that makes a person use a guide, hearing or support animal. It says animal rather than dog, which is more than the state statute manages, but it is still built around a physical characteristic. If your disability is a mental health condition, your route is § 93.11(c)(3)(b), the reasonable accommodation duty, which is not limited that way.

### Can a Springfield landlord charge pet rent or a pet deposit for my ESA?

Not as the price of the accommodation. Local text is unusually direct: § 93.11(c)(3)(a) says the landlord may not increase for persons with disabilities any customarily required security deposit, and the state version sits at 775 ILCS 5/3-102.1(C)(1). Pet rent is not capped by anything in Springfield or in Illinois, so the argument is that billing you for the animal is refusing the accommodation, not that the amount is too high.

### Does Springfield limit how many animals I can keep in a rental?

No. Chapter 91, the animal control chapter, runs to 38 sections and never sets a per-dwelling limit on dogs or cats. It also contains no pet deposit or pet fee rule and no assistance-animal provision. The only animal exception in the chapter is that the excrement rule does not apply to a blind person walking a guide dog. Any number limit you are facing comes from your lease, and a lease term is a rule.

### What if I miss the 180-day city deadline?

Two doors stay open. A housing charge goes to the Illinois Department of Human Rights within one year under 775 ILCS 5/7B-102(A)(1). A lawsuit goes to circuit court within two years under 775 ILCS 5/10-102(A)(1), where either party may demand a jury and where paragraph (3) says you need not have filed a charge first. Remedies under 775 ILCS 5/8B-104 include actual damages, attorney's and expert witness fees and civil penalties up to $16,000, $42,500 or $70,000.

### How does my deposit work when I move out of a Springfield rental?

Damage the animal actually causes is yours. Under 765 ILCS 710/1 the landlord must send an itemised statement with paid receipts within 30 days of the later of your vacating or your right of possession ending, or return the whole deposit within 45 days. A court finding a refusal to itemise or bad faith awards twice the deposit plus costs and reasonable attorney's fees. Since Public Act 103-224 took effect on January 1, 2024 this reaches every Illinois landlord, including the small houses and conversions common in Springfield.

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Get evaluated by a licensed provider: https://my.supportanimal.com/qualify?sa_source=blog&sa_medium=blog&sa_campaign=esa-guides&sa_content=markdown&ref=blog&sa_term=illinois-emotional-support-animal%2Fspringfield