# ESA Letter in Redmond, OR: A Home Right, Not a Shop Right

> Oregon splits assistance animals between two statutes. One governs your apartment and asks nothing about training; the other governs Sixth Street and does.

- Source: https://supportanimal.com/blog/oregon-emotional-support-animal/redmond/
- Publisher: Support Animal (supportanimal.com)
- Updated: 2026-09-05
- License note: informational content; not legal or medical advice.

## Key facts

- Population: 37,626
- Households renting: 35.5%
- Typical pet deposit (as a pet): Barred as accommodation
- Typical pet rent (as a pet): $35-$60/mo for pets
- Breed/weight limits common: yes
- Pet fees, deposits, and breed limits with a valid ESA letter: none (FHA reasonable accommodation)

## Bend's overflow, priced $255 lower

Redmond rents 4,943 of its 13,907 occupied homes, 35.5 percent on the 2020–2024
American Community Survey five-year estimate, a shade under Oregon's 36.7 percent.
Median gross rent is $1,628, above the $1,525 statewide figure and **$255 below
Bend's $1,883**, fifteen miles south.

That $255 is most of why Redmond exists in its current form. The 2024 Census
estimate puts the city at 37,626, seventeenth in Oregon, and it has added housing
faster than almost anywhere else in the state over the past decade, much of it
bought or rented by people who work in Bend and could not pay Bend prices.

Fast growth brings a particular kind of tenant: new to the area, new to the
building, and frequently holding a document ordered online that a website called
an "ESA registration." They expect it to work in the apartment, in the shops on
Sixth Street, and at the airport.

Oregon says two different things about those places, in two different sections.

## Two statutes, two tests

**Your home is ORS 659A.145.** It governs real property transactions. It contains
no animal definition. It contains no cross-reference to any animal definition. It
requires no training, no task, no certification and no registry. Its operative
words for an emotional support animal are in subsection (2)(g): it is unlawful to
refuse "to make reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices or
services when the accommodations may be necessary to afford the individual with a
disability equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling."

**The shop is ORS 659A.143.** It governs places of public accommodation and access
to state government services, and it opens with a definition:

> "'Assistance animal' means a dog or other animal designated by administrative
> rule that has been individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the
> benefit of an individual."

Note the four words that introduce it: "**As used in this section.**" That
definition does not travel. It applies to 659A.143 and to nothing else.

So Oregon's answer is not that an emotional support animal is real or unreal. It
is that the state gave you a right at home and did not give you one on Sixth
Street.

## What a business may actually ask

ORS 659A.143 is quite protective, of trained animals.

Subsection (2) says a place of public accommodation may not ask an individual
about "the nature or extent of a disability," may not "require an individual to
provide documentation proving that an animal is an assistance animal," and may
not "require that a person with a disability or an assistance animal trainer pay a
fee or admission charge for an assistance animal."

Subsection (3) then says what it **may** ask: "whether an animal is required due
to a disability," and "about the nature of the work or task that an animal is
trained to do or perform ... unless it is readily apparent" that it does.

Read those together and the position is clear. A Redmond business cannot demand
your paperwork or interrogate your diagnosis. It can ask what task the animal is
trained to perform, and an emotional support animal, by definition, has no
answer, because comfort by presence is not a trained task.

That is not a loophole to be argued around. It is the line the legislature drew.

## The other animal section, and where it lands

Chapter 659A contains exactly two provisions about animals. The second is ORS
659A.141, which lets a person with a disability, or the owner of an assistance
animal, recover economic and noneconomic damages against someone who steals or,
without provocation, attacks the animal: with attorney fees to a prevailing
plaintiff.

It closes at subsection (6): "As used in this section, 'assistance animal' has the
meaning given that term in ORS 659A.143."

So both of chapter 659A's animal sections are keyed to the trained-animal test,
and **neither is the housing provision**. Your housing right comes from a section
that is not about animals at all. That is the single most useful thing to
understand about Oregon.

## Which is why the registration does nothing

No Oregon statute establishes a registry. No section of chapter 659A or chapter 90
mentions a certificate, an identification card or a database listing.

Consider what each half of Oregon law would want from such a document. In housing,
ORS 659A.145(2)(g) asks whether an accommodation may be necessary because of a
disability: a question about you, answered by a clinician who assessed you, which
a registration site never did. In a shop, ORS 659A.143 asks about training, which
a registration cannot supply because no training occurred.

A purchased registration answers neither question. It is not weak evidence; it is
evidence of nothing either statute asks about.

## What the home right is worth

Quite a lot, and it is worth being concrete about it because the disappointment
about shops obscures the value of the rest.

ORS 90.300(4): a landlord "may not charge a tenant a pet security deposit for
keeping a service animal or companion animal that a tenant with a disability
requires as a reasonable accommodation under fair housing laws." ORS 90.302(1)
permits only the fees that section lists, which removes recurring pet rent. At
Redmond's $1,628 median gross rent, a pet deposit plus $50 a month is a four-figure
sum over a lease.

What survives is an ordinary security deposit that is not larger because of the
animal, liability for damage the animal actually does, and the narrow
waste-cleanup noncompliance fee ORS 90.302(3)(b)(C) preserves.

And one boundary worth stating plainly rather than leaving vague: **air travel is
not governed by either of these sections.** Aviation has its own federal rules and
they are a separate subject. What Oregon law says is narrow: your right comes from
ORS 659A.145, it attaches to real property, and it stops at the property line.

## Getting the thing that actually works

The home right is real and it stands on a single fact. Oregon asks whether an
accommodation may be necessary because of a disability, and whether the tenant
requires the animal, then names no professions and keeps no register. There is
no procedure that stands in for somebody having assessed you.

If you have a therapist, counsellor or prescriber, ask them first. They know
your history, can speak to a disability-related need with real authority,
and it costs nothing beyond the appointment. Deschutes County's constraint
is supply: outpatient mental health capacity is thin for a region growing
this fast, waits of several months are ordinary, and some practices decline
housing documentation as policy.

When it is not open, a licensed evaluation is that examination arranged
deliberately: an Oregon-licensed clinician determining whether a disability
exists and whether the animal accommodates it, and documenting it or declining
to. Both are real. Certainty offered in advance is the mark of a sale rather
than an assessment.

The difference between that and a registration is exactly the difference between
the two statutes on this page. A determination answers the question ORS
659A.145(2)(g) asks, which is why it works where the right actually exists. A
registration answers a question no Oregon statute asks anywhere, which is why it
works neither in the apartment nor in the shop.

## What Redmond landlords can and cannot do

**Cannot:**
- May not refuse to make a reasonable accommodation in rules, policies, practices or services where it is necessary to give a disabled tenant equal opportunity to use and enjoy the dwelling: ORS 659A.145(2)(g). A no-pets policy is a rule, and the accommodation is an exception to it.
- May not charge a pet security deposit for a service animal or companion animal the tenant requires as a reasonable accommodation, ORS 90.300(4), which names the companion animal in the statute itself.
- May not charge any fee at the beginning of the tenancy for an anticipated expense, and may charge only the fees ORS 90.302 lists, each described in a written rental agreement.
- May not make a distinction or restriction against a renter in the price, terms, conditions or privileges of the tenancy because of disability: ORS 659A.145(2)(c).

**Can:**
- May still charge a noncompliance fee for failure to clean up a service or companion animal's waste from common areas, but only after a written warning notice, only for a second or later occurrence within a year, and capped at $50 under ORS 90.302(3).
- May still hold the tenant liable for damage the animal actually does, and may still take an ordinary security deposit, provided it is not larger because of the animal.
- Faces a disparate-impact claim under ORS 659A.425 where a facially neutral policy hits disabled tenants harder than tenants generally, weighed against the policy's business purpose and any less discriminatory alternative.

## How to get an ESA letter in Redmond

1. **Check that you qualify**, Answer a short screening about how your condition affects daily life in Redmond. No diagnosis paperwork needed up front. (About 5 minutes: free)
2. **Connect with a licensed professional**, You are matched with a provider licensed for Oregon 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 Oregon 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 Redmond. (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 Redmond

- [Housing Works](https://www.housingworks.org/) (housing authority)
- [Fair Housing Council of Oregon](https://www.fhco.org/) (fair housing nonprofit)
- [Legal Aid Services of Oregon](https://lasoregon.org/) (legal aid)
- [BOLI, Civil Rights Division](https://www.oregon.gov/boli/civil-rights/Pages/default.aspx) (state agency)

## Frequently asked questions

### Can I bring my emotional support animal into shops and restaurants in Redmond?

Not as a matter of Oregon law. The public-accommodation right is ORS 659A.143, and it defines an assistance animal, "as used in this section," as "a dog or other animal designated by administrative rule that has been individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual." A business may ask "about the nature of the work or task that an animal is trained to do or perform." An emotional support animal has no answer to that question.

### Why do I have a right at home but not in a shop?

Because they are different sections of the statute with different tests. ORS 659A.145 governs real property transactions and contains no animal definition, no cross-reference to 659A.143 and no training requirement. It asks only whether an accommodation may be necessary because of a disability. ORS 659A.143 governs places of public accommodation and access to state government services, and it does require training. Oregon drew the line between the two deliberately.

### What may a Redmond business ask me?

Two things, under ORS 659A.143(3): "whether an animal is required due to a disability" and "about the nature of the work or task that an animal is trained to do or perform," the second unless it is readily apparent. What it may not do, under subsection (2), is ask about the nature or extent of your disability, require documentation proving the animal is an assistance animal, or charge a fee for one. Those protections belong to trained animals.

### Is there any Oregon provision that protects my ESA outside housing?

Not among the animal provisions in chapter 659A. There are exactly two: ORS 659A.141, which lets the owner of an assistance animal recover damages for theft of or an unprovoked attack on the animal, and ORS 659A.143. Section 659A.141 closes by adopting the 659A.143 definition, so both are keyed to the trained-animal test. Your housing right comes from a section that is not about animals at all.

### Does an online ESA registration do anything in Oregon?

No Oregon statute establishes a registry, and no section of chapter 659A or chapter 90 mentions a certificate, an ID card or a database listing. In housing, ORS 659A.145(2)(g) asks whether an accommodation may be necessary because of a disability, a question about you and your animal that a registration has never asked. In a shop, ORS 659A.143 asks about training, which a registration cannot supply either.

### Can a Redmond landlord charge a pet deposit for my assistance animal?

No. ORS 90.300(4) provides that a landlord "may not charge a tenant a pet security deposit for keeping a service animal or companion animal that a tenant with a disability requires as a reasonable accommodation under fair housing laws." ORS 90.302(1) permits only the fees that section lists, which removes recurring pet rent for a required accommodation.

### What about air travel out of Redmond airport?

Air travel is governed by federal aviation rules rather than by ORS 659A.143 or 659A.145, and it is a separate question from anything on this page. What can be said about Oregon law is narrow and worth being clear about: your housing right comes from ORS 659A.145, it is confined to real property, and it does not extend to terminals, aircraft or any other place.

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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=oregon-emotional-support-animal%2Fredmond