Maddie’s^® Insights is our ongoing webcast series with practical tips based on current research to help pets and people. Our guest speaker for Thursday, December 12 is Lauren Loney, attorney and independent researcher. The webcast is at 12PM PT/3PM ET.

Housing insecurity for tenants has increased in severity in the last several years as rents have skyrocketed and eviction rates have, in many cities, climbed higher than even pre-pandemic levels, according to a 2024 Harvard study. Today, more renters than ever are experiencing at least moderate rent burden as unaffordability in the rental market hit an all-time high in 2022.  Housing insecurity directly impacts peoples’ ability to acquire and keep pets for life. There is a small, but growing body of research to better understand the impact of rental housing conditions on pets, pet owners, and animal shelters in the U.S. and how this issue relates to broader affordable housing and tenants’ rights social justice advocacy.

Loney’s presentation, “Insights and Implications from Housing-Related Animal Shelter Intake Data,” will address the impact of restrictive pet policies in rental housing on pets, animal shelters, and the tenants who love them. Join us to learn about trends in pet relinquishment due to housing issues and several programmatic tools that may be most useful to mitigate the flow of these pets into animal shelters.

What you will takeaway:

• The audience will understand how animal welfare and pet policy issues intersect with traditional affordable housing and tenants’ rights issues, particularly for low-income families.
• The audience will understand the difference between “pet-friendly” and “pet-inclusive” housing and why our affordable housing crisis, in general, means that policy advocacy for pet-inclusive housing include pushing back against the use of nonrefundable pet fees and rents.
• The audience will learn about trends in pet relinquishment due to housing issues and several programmatic tools that may be most useful to mitigate the flow of these pets into animal shelters.

This webcast has been pre-approved for 1.0 Certified Animal Welfare Administrator continuing education credits by The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement and by the National Animal Care & Control Association. It has also been approved for 1 hour of continuing education credit in jurisdictions which recognize the Registry of Approved Continuing Education (RACE) approval.

Can’t attend live? Register anyway and you will get a link to the recording after the webcast.