Housing insecurity and the human-animal bond

Few moments in a veterinary clinic are more devastating than when a distressed client asks what their options are for a beloved dog they can no longer keep because they have to move and cannot find housing that allows pets. It is heartbreaking, overwhelming, and deeply unjust, but it is not inevitable. Practical, compassionate steps can be taken to help in these situations and support the people and animals caught in them.

In veterinary medicine, the importance of the human-animal bond is often discussed in terms of trust, compliance, behavior, and welfare. Housing has, unfortunately, not been prioritized in these conversations. If people cannot find secure housing with their pets, they may wind up living in unsafe conditions—or, they could be forced to part with their pets, at which point the bond is broken.

Once that happens, everything else that veterinary professionals strive to achieve, such as continuity of care, preventive health, and humane outcomes, is fruitless.  Without the bond, the client and the patient are lost. This is not a fringe issue. It is at the core of animal welfare and public health and veterinarians are fundamental to the solution.

The hidden housing crisis for families and companion animals

Linda English was living what many would call a good life in San Francisco. A house with a garden, a stable family, two elderly dogs (Romeo, a 15-year-old cattle dog, and Peanut, a 15-year-old Chihuahua), and two cats.

“It was good. I mean, we were a happy family. Living the dream, really…” she said. “It was balanced and it was beautiful… It felt very homey. To me, pets make a home, really.”

Then her husband died unexpectedly. The income vanished overnight.

Her older son moved out with the cats, but she had to urgently find new housing near her younger son’s workplace. And her dream became a nightmare when she started searching for rentals. “As soon as I started looking at listings it would say 50 places for rent in my price range, but as soon as I put on the filter for pets allowed, it would go down to like 10. And then out of those, it would say one small dog. I had two dogs.”

Like more than 11 million renter households in the U.S. who, according to Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies 2024 Report, already pay over half their income on rent, recovering from this sudden loss seemed all but impossible. And English’s story is a harsh reminder that many of us are just one tragedy away from homelessness.

A common occurrence

Her experience is far from rare. In fact, housing issues are among the leading reasons for pet surrenders in the United States, particularly for larger dogs, as documented in a 2024 study of 21 animal shelters. Yet in busy clinical environments, where time is limited and the focus is understandably on the animal’s immediate health needs, this critical threat to the human-animal bond can easily be overlooked.

Even after she finally secured housing, English still struggled financially. The cost of veterinary care felt overwhelming, and for a period she avoided bringing her dogs for veterinary care as often as she wanted to. She even had to stop providing some of the medication and regular therapeutic treatments she had been able to afford for her dogs previously.

“I never considered talking to a vet about [my situation],” English said. “It was not until two years later when I was handed a large bill. I made a little comment, and the girl was nice enough to tell me about the low-cost clinic. But other than that, I would have never known.”

Housing security for pet parents is central to veterinary care

The 2024 Bustad Companion Animal Veterinarian of the Year, Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Tennessee, and one of the editors of The Routledge International Handbook of Human-Animal Interactions and Anthrozoology, Zenithson Ng, DVM, MS, sees the issue clearly. When clients lose housing, they lose consistent access to veterinary care.

“If we don’t have that continuity of care, then that obviously decreases the quality of care that we can probably deliver to that particular patient,” he explained. “When people aren’t going to the same veterinarian all the time, a lot of details get lost in the cracks.”

This inconsistency can lead to missed diagnoses and neglected chronic issues. “If there’s a minor ailment, ‘Oh yeah, you know what, Fluffy just didn’t eat today’, or maybe they haven’t noticed something like a mass growing on their skin—those things just don’t become a priority when you have clearly other life things that are more urgent than your pet’s needs,” he said.

Ng offers a simple solution. Talk to clients. And really listen.

“The key is to build a trusting relationship with that client,” he said. “And to ask that client clearly, ‘What is going on with this animal? What’s [your] pet’s home life like?’ An open-ended question like that. ‘Tell me about any changes to this pet’s life or your life.’ I think that’s a great question.”

Small actions, big impacts

It is important to acknowledge the extreme pressures that veterinarians face. The stress, burnout, and emotional toll of clinical work are well documented. It’s easy to see how adding “client housing” to their to-do list might feel like yet another duty they don’t have time for.

However, while it is unrealistic to expect veterinary professionals to take on more than they can manage, even modest efforts to protect the human-animal bond can be impactful. Supporting the bond is not just good for animals and their people. It can be emotionally restorative for veterinary teams themselves.

Elizabeth Ormerod, BVMS, is a pioneer of bond-centered veterinary practice. She serves on the Boards of the International Association of Human-Animal Interaction Organizations (IAHAIO), The Society for Companion Animal Studies (SCAS), Our Special Friends, and is co-Founder and VP of Canine Partners. She puts it plainly: “When you have a bond-centered approach, you’re supporting that relationship, and that really is the bottom line.”

Operating a bond-centered practice (which is very closely tied to family-centered care) is not just good for animals and their people. It’s good for business, too. “Having this approach also made the practice more profitable because the clients loved that they felt they could come and talk to us about all sorts of things,” she said.

Even small changes in your practice can have a meaningful impact. Keeping a list of local clinics with reduced-cost services or providing financially-friendly payment options (angel funds, CareCredit, etc.) for clients facing hardship are small steps that can support clients in crisis. Ormerod also recommends clinics put up community noticeboards where landlords with pet-inclusive properties can advertise. And offering simple testimonial letters that describe an animal’s temperament and confirm up-to-date health records can go a long way toward helping that family secure housing.

“[The practice] could have a standard letter for writing a testimonial and it wouldn’t actually take much time,” Ormerod said. “The vet staff could write it on headed notepad paper. Delegate. Vet nurses are underutilized and undervalued, and this is one way to help them get more job satisfaction.”

The connection between housing and overflowing shelters

Animal shelter intake data paints a grim picture, but it often oversimplifies the reasons people give up their pets. A case labeled “housing” may actually reflect a much more complex financial reality. People may technically be allowed to keep their pets in a rental, but if doing so means they cannot afford veterinary care, or if affording veterinary care means they can no longer afford rent, they may feel forced to surrender the animal.

In these situations, pet owners are not simply choosing between rent and a pet. They are being forced to choose between becoming homeless or keeping the animal they love.

As Ross Barker, Program Director, Pet-Inclusive Housing, Michelson Found Animals Foundation, explains, there is a growing disconnect between what policies allow and what people can actually manage. “We don’t know what people are sacrificing first. Are they going to sacrifice the veterinary care? Are they going to surrender their pet?” Barker said. “[Animal] shelters will get that data and say, well, this pet’s coming in because of housing and we don’t want anybody to have to make that choice between being homeless or finding a place to live with their pet.” The fact is, pet-friendly housing doesn’t necessarily mean all pets are welcome, which can complicate the data surrounding this issue.

Size and breed restrictions play a major role in limiting housing options for pet owners. As Lynette Hart DVM, PhD, Professor Emerita of Anthrozoology and Animal Behavior at the Department of Veterinary Medicine, UC Davis, explained, “We have a pattern in the U.S., which is that the landlords will say they allow pets, but there are so many qualifiers that basically many pets are excluded.”

The outcome is predictable. Families are forced to relinquish pets, often the large or elderly ones, simply to access housing. Once a dog enters the shelter system, their future becomes uncertain.

How veterinarians can make a difference

This is why Hart sees veterinarians as natural advocates—they’re in a unique position to intervene.

“Veterinarians are where the rubber meets the road. The pet owner brings the pet into the veterinarian and maybe the pet owner is saying, ‘I have to get rid of my pet now because I’m moving into rental housing,’” she said.

Trusted by their clients and connected to a broader care network, veterinarians can be powerful intermediaries in these moments of crisis.

“Veterinarians are almost always the most trusted person when it comes to the welfare of the pet. They’re really well positioned to offer guidance,” Barker said.

“Housing is a fundamental aspect of human and animal health,” added Ormerod. “It’s our duty, where there’s a housing issue in a community, to step up.”

Having that duty does not mean doing it all alone, though.

“Veterinarians are spread thin, so they need to work with community entities that are already out there,” Hart noted. Whether it is a Rotary Club, a local social worker, or an animal welfare nonprofit, collaboration is key. The goal is not to fix everything. The goal is to help one client, one animal, one bond at a time.

For a profession grappling with compassion fatigue and burnout, this kind of advocacy might offer something vital as it reconnects to the heart of the profession.

Ng summed it up powerfully. “We, as veterinarians, are the gatekeepers of human and animal health, and it is our job to keep pets and people together,” he said. “If this problem is breaking up the relationships between pets and people, then I think that we need to be at the center of that conversation.”

Or as English put it, in the simplest and clearest of terms, “That bond is what veterinarians should prioritize. That bond above everything else.”

 

Photo credit: Chalabala/iStock via Getty Images Plus

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