# ESA Letter in Spearfish, SD: The List That Leaves You Out

> SDCL 20-13-23.4 covers physical, blind and deaf. In 2020 the legislature added psychiatric disability to the public-places section — and not to this one.

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

## Key facts

- Population: 13,803
- Households renting: 50.4%
- Typical pet deposit (as a pet): Barred as accommodation
- Typical pet rent (as a pet): $25-$50/mo for pets
- Breed/weight limits common: yes
- Pet fees, deposits, and breed limits with a valid ESA letter: none (FHA reasonable accommodation)

## A Black Hills town where half the households rent

Spearfish has 2,987 renting households out of 5,932 occupied homes, **50.4
percent** on the 2020–2024 American Community Survey five-year estimate.
That is nineteen points above the 31.4 percent statewide figure and fourth
of South Dakota's twenty largest cities, behind Vermillion, Brookings and
Box Elder.

Median gross rent is $963, a little over the $946 state median and a long
way under Box Elder's $1,491 twenty minutes down the interstate. The 2024
Census estimate puts Spearfish at 13,803, eighty-four people behind Box
Elder and tenth in the state.

Black Hills State University, seasonal tourism work and a steady
in-migration keep the rental market busy and the leases short. A tenant here
who needs an assistance animal will find a South Dakota statute that appears
to be exactly on point, and it is not.

## The section that looks written for you

SDCL 20-13-23.4, catchline "Right to keep guide dog in rented or leased residence":

> "No landlord may prohibit by lease or otherwise the keeping of a service animal by a
> person who is **totally or partially physically disabled, totally or partially blind, or
> totally or partially deaf** in an apartment or other rented or leased residential
> property. A violation of this section is a Class 2 misdemeanor."

A landlord may not prohibit the animal. There is a criminal penalty
attached. It is specific to rented residential property. Everything about it
reads like the provision a South Dakota tenant needs.

Now read the list of people it covers. Physically disabled. Blind. Deaf.
That is the whole enumeration, and it is a closed list, not an illustration.

Psychiatric disability is not in it. Mental disability is not in it.

## Why that is not an oversight

The usual response to a gap like this is that the statute is old and nobody
has been back to it. That response is available for a lot of provisions. It
is not available for this one, and the reason sits two sections earlier in
the same chapter.

SDCL 20-13-23.2 is the parallel section for **public accommodations**: the
shops, restaurants, hotels and other places listed in SDCL 20-13-23.1. Its
list of covered people reads:

> "Any person who is totally or partially physically disabled, totally or partially blind,
> totally or partially deaf, **or has a psychiatric disability or mental disability** may
> be accompanied by a service animal, especially trained for the purpose…"

Those last words were added by **SL 2020, ch 71, § 1**. In 2020 the South
Dakota legislature looked at this exact question (whether a psychiatric or
mental disability belongs in an assistance-animal statute), and answered
yes, for public places.

It did not make the same amendment to SDCL 20-13-23.4. That section's source
line ends at SL 1995, ch 118, § 2. The legislature reached into one section
of a two-section pair and left the other where it was.

Whatever the reason, the consequence for a Spearfish tenant is the same:
20-13-23.4 is not your section, and asserting it invites a landlord's
adviser to read the list aloud.

## Nor can SDCL 43-32-33 rescue it

The other move a tenant makes here is to pick up the definition in SDCL 43-32-33, which
does say that "service animal" refers to any animal serving a role "as an emotional support
animal" — and staple it to 20-13-23.4.

That fails on the definition's own opening words: "**For the purposes of §§ 43-32-34 to
43-32-36, inclusive**." Those are the rental documentation sections in chapter 43-32. The
definition does not reach chapter 20-13 at all.

So two provisions that each look like they help, and neither does. Better to
know that before the conversation than during it.

## What actually applies

**42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(B)** (the federal Fair Housing Act's reasonable-accommodation
duty) applies to Spearfish rentals on its own terms and is not narrowed by anything in the
South Dakota code. For most tenants here it is the load-bearing provision.

**SDCL 20-13-23.7** is the state duty: "for purposes of employment, public accommodation,
public service, and education or housing, good faith efforts shall be made to reasonably
accommodate the disabled person unless the accommodation would impose undue hardship." It
names no animal and no category of disability, which is exactly why it works where
20-13-23.4 does not. SDCL 20-13-35.1 backs it with punitive damages.

**SDCL 20-13-20(2)** takes the charges off: an unfair or discriminatory practice to
discriminate because of disability in "the terms, conditions, or privileges" of a rental.

And **SDCL 43-32-34 to 43-32-36** (where 43-32-33's definition does apply),
govern the documentation: what the landlord may require, what it must say,
and what happens if it is knowingly fraudulent.

## A note on the misdemeanour

SDCL 20-13-23.4's Class 2 misdemeanor penalty is real, and it belongs to the
people the section lists. A tenant with a trained guide dog or hearing dog
in a Spearfish apartment has a criminal provision behind them that an
emotional support animal's handler does not.

That is worth saying plainly rather than blurring, because the difference is
the whole reason this page exists. Your position is a civil accommodation
claim under federal law and SDCL 20-13-23.7, and it is a good one. It is
simply not the one with a criminal penalty attached.

## The money and the clock

SDCL 43-32-6.1 caps everything the landlord holds at one month's rent "however
denominated," which at Spearfish's $963 median is a little under a thousand dollars. SDCL
43-32-24 puts the balance, or a written explanation, twenty-one days after the tenancy closes and
your address is in their hands, and a lessor who misses that forfeits the right to keep back any of
it.

SDCL 20-13-31 gives 180 days from the refusal, with no discovery language.
On a nine-month academic lease or a seasonal tenancy that window frequently
closes after you have left the Hills, so date the request and date the
refusal in writing at the time.

## What to do with a landlord who quotes 20-13-23.4

They may quote it in your favour, having read only the catchline, and then
withdraw it when somebody checks.

The better course is not to rely on it at any point. Lead with the federal
duty and SDCL 20-13-23.7, and if 20-13-23.4 comes up, say plainly that it
covers physical, blind and deaf tenants and that your position does not
depend on it.

That costs nothing. What costs something is building a request on a section
whose list of covered people can be read aloud in five seconds, and then
having to rebuild it after somebody does.

## What has to be established

Start with a clinician you already see, including through the university if
that is a real clinical relationship. The friction here is specific: campus
counselling runs on semester waitlists and is built for short-course work
rather than for writing disability determinations, and the Northern Hills
has very little private psychiatric capacity, for many Spearfish residents
the nearest is Rapid City, with waits of months.

Where that route is closed, a licensed evaluation is the same examination
arranged on purpose: somebody licensed decides whether a disability exists
and whether this animal answers it, then records the conclusion or explains
why they will not. Both endings are real, and a provider whose answer is
fixed in advance is the operation SDCL 43-32-35 excludes by name.

In a state whose legislature added your disability to one section and not
the other, the document that establishes the disability is not paperwork
around the case. It is the case.

## What Spearfish landlords can and cannot do

**Cannot:**
- May not require documentation at all where the disability or the disability-related need is readily apparent or already known to them, SDCL 43-32-34, second sentence.
- May not discriminate because of disability in the terms, conditions or privileges of the rental, SDCL 20-13-20(2). A pet deposit or monthly pet charge on a required accommodation is caught here.
- May not take a security deposit above one month's rent "however denominated", SDCL 43-32-6.1, so a pet fee cannot be stacked on top of a full deposit by renaming it.

**Can:**
- May require reliable supporting documentation where a tenant asserts a disability requiring an assistance animal, SDCL 43-32-34. This is an express statutory right and arguing that a South Dakota landlord may not ask is simply wrong.
- May insist the documentation confirm both the disability and the relationship between the disability and the need for the animal, and that it come from a licensed health care provider who does not operate in South Dakota solely to certify animals, SDCL 43-32-35.
- Must make good faith efforts to reasonably accommodate a person with a disability in housing, unless the accommodation would impose undue hardship, SDCL 20-13-23.7, with punitive damages available under SDCL 20-13-35.1.
- Must return the deposit or give written reasons within twenty-one days of termination, and forfeits all right to withhold anything by failing to, SDCL 43-32-24.
- May evict and claim a damage fee of up to one thousand dollars where a tenant knowingly makes a false claim of disability or knowingly supplies fraudulent documentation, SDCL 43-32-36.
- Is not required by the chapter to modify the property, incur additional expenses or exercise a higher degree of care, SDCL 20-13-21.1. Waiving a no-pets rule asks for none of those things.

## How to get an ESA letter in Spearfish

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

- [City of Spearfish](https://www.spearfish.gov/) (city government)
- [Western South Dakota Community Action](https://www.wsdca.org/) (community action agency)
- [Disability Rights South Dakota](https://drsdlaw.org/) (disability rights org)
- [South Dakota Housing](https://www.sdhousing.org/) (state housing authority)

## Frequently asked questions

### Does SDCL 20-13-23.4 protect my emotional support animal in a Spearfish rental?

No. The section bars a landlord from prohibiting a service animal kept by a person "totally or partially physically disabled, totally or partially blind, or totally or partially deaf." Psychiatric disability and mental disability are not in that list, and the section is a closed enumeration rather than an illustration. Whatever else your position rests on, it does not rest on 20-13-23.4.

### Is that just an old statute nobody has revisited?

No, and this is the part that settles it. In 2020 the legislature amended SDCL 20-13-23.2, the public accommodations equivalent, to add "or has a psychiatric disability or mental disability" to its list. It did not make the same amendment to the housing section. SDCL 20-13-23.4's source line ends at SL 1995, ch 118, the legislature reached for one section and not the other in the same area of law.

### So can I use the 2020 amendment at all?

In shops, restaurants and other places listed in SDCL 20-13-23.1, yes. That is what SDCL 20-13-23.2 covers, and after 2020 it reaches a psychiatric or mental disability. Its animal is still one "especially trained for the purpose," so an emotional support animal has its own difficulty there. In housing the section simply does not apply.

### Then what does protect me in Spearfish?

Two provisions, neither of which mentions an animal. The federal Fair Housing Act's accommodation duty at 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(B) applies to Spearfish rentals on its own terms, and SDCL 20-13-23.7 calls for good faith efforts at reasonable accommodation in housing short of undue hardship. That silence about animals and about categories of disability is exactly why they work where 20-13-23.4 does not.

### Does SDCL 43-32-33's definition help here?

Not in this section. SDCL 43-32-33 does say that "service animal" includes an emotional support animal — but it opens "for the purposes of §§ 43-32-34 to 43-32-36, inclusive," which are the rental documentation sections. That definition governs what a landlord may ask for and what the paperwork must be. It does not travel into chapter 20-13 and cannot rescue 20-13-23.4.

### Can a Spearfish landlord charge me a pet deposit?

Not where the animal is a genuine accommodation. The charge is caught by SDCL 20-13-20(2), which reaches disability discrimination in "the terms, conditions, or privileges" of a rental, and by the federal Fair Housing Act. SDCL 43-32-6.1 separately caps everything the landlord holds at one month's rent however denominated, which at Spearfish's $963 median rent is a little under a thousand dollars.

### How long do I have to challenge a refusal?

180 days from the refusal, under SDCL 20-13-31, filed with the Division of Human Rights in the Department of Labor and Regulation. On a student or seasonal lease that window can close after you have left the Black Hills, so date the request and the refusal in writing when they happen.

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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=south-dakota-emotional-support-animal%2Fspearfish