Scarce housing, sovereign nations

South Dakota: work out whose rules govern the building first

Almost every difficulty in this state traces back to one of three things — there are very few places to rent, some of them answer to a nation rather than to the state, and the winter supplies landlords with an argument they use constantly.

A brick commercial block on Main Avenue in Sioux Falls in summer
Sioux Falls, which holds a large share of everything let in the state Photo: w_lemay · CC BY-SA 2.0

Three kinds of building, three different doors

Identify yours before you send anything to anybody.

The common case An ordinary private letting The standard framework governs. South Dakota Division of Human Rights receives a complaint, and Region VIII - Denver stands as the national alternative behind it.
Within reservation boundaries A nation may govern instead The peoples here administer housing and hear grievances under arrangements they set themselves. Approach that office rather than taking it for granted that a state or federal desk has any reach.
Rent tied to earnings Public money adds obligations Where a subsidy is attached or an agency placed you, the funding conditions bring an additional venue with them and an additional set of deadlines.

These overlap constantly. Assisted homes within reservation boundaries bring the funding conditions and the nation's internal process to bear at once, and asking the housing office outright beats guessing between them.

The objections that arrive with the cold

Landlords here raise the winter more than anything else, usually in one of two forms. The first is that an animal kept indoors from November to April will wear out carpet, scratch doors or mark walls that cannot easily be repaired until the ground thaws.

Wear that has not yet occurred is a forecast, and a forecast is not a demonstrated expense. With consent granted you remain accountable for whatever the creature truly harms, charged on precisely the footing any other occupant would meet.

The second form is about heating: that keeping an animal warm will raise the fuel bill, or that a property left empty during a cold snap becomes a risk. A heating system adequate for a household is adequate whether or not a dog is lying beside it, and whether the building stays habitable through January is the owner's obligation regardless of who else lives there.

Neither belongs to the small set of reasons a refusal may actually rest on: something this creature has done or credibly threatens, an outlay proven excessive for this address, or an adjustment so large it would remake how the property is run.

Handling it from a long way off

Five steps, and not one requires you to drive to Pierre.

Ask while you are still applying Applicants may raise it before signing anything. A landlord who stops replying the moment it comes up has shown their hand at the point when you still have somewhere else to go.
Settle who governs the property Tribal, subsidised or plain private. That one determination fixes where every later letter belongs, and getting it wrong costs weeks you cannot spare.
Use writing for everything A conversation over a counter or at a farmyard gate leaves nothing behind. A message from your phone is a record and it stays in your possession.
Pin the money down explicitly Ask in one sentence whether the animal deposit goes and whether the recurring charge stops. Leaving it fuzzy now means finding it on your ledger in three months.
File without travelling Statements, questions and negotiated settlements are all handled remotely. Nobody is going to require your attendance somewhere three hours away.

How the state divides up

Sioux Falls Growing quickly, and the one place with a real supply of professionally managed flats. Refusals arrive as settled corporate rule rather than as anybody's opinion, which makes them straightforward to escalate above the leasing desk.
Rapid City and the Black Hills Tourism has converted a good deal of long-term stock to short stays. Where an agreement is quietly allowed to lapse not long after you raised it, that ordering is worth looking at closely whatever account of the market comes with it.
Reservation communities Nations here run a large share of the housing by rules of their own making, which move faster as a rule and are always the correct first stop.
Brookings and Vermillion University towns where leases turn over every August. Nobody stays long enough to challenge a bad practice, so bad practices last for years.
The small towns and open country One or two properties per owner and enormous distances between them. What shows up is inexperience rather than a rule, and a polite written note closes nearly all of it.

Why asking early matters more here

In a city, being refused means looking at the next building. Across much of this state there is no next building. That imbalance pushes people into accepting answers they should not accept, and it lets poor practice survive because nobody remains in place long enough to test it.

The conclusion is not to give way. It is to raise the question at the earliest possible moment — during the application, before a lease is signed, while alternatives still exist — because that is when a landlord's position costs you the least to discover.

Two things are worth holding onto if it goes further. Starting a case compels neither a departure nor any wish for one, and a case under way can be pursued from whatever address you occupy afterwards, another state included.

Questions from South Dakota

My home is on a reservation. Who should I approach?
The nation's own housing office. Self-governing peoples administer their dwellings and their complaints internally, which makes that both the correct opening and usually the faster one. Ask them outright which procedure covers where you live instead of supposing some external body reaches it.
Is the winter a reason they can rely on?
Weather is not among the reasons a refusal may rest on. Warming a property properly is the owner's duty whoever lives there, and harm nobody has caused is guesswork rather than an invoice. The refusal has to identify what this particular creature has done, an outlay demonstrated disproportionate at the address, or an adjustment large enough to reshape how the place is run.
The rent comes straight out of my benefit payment.
That makes no difference to whether you are covered. Making the place your household is the fact that settles it, not the path the money takes on its way to the owner. A subsidy usually adds a further place to complain rather than removing one.
Is a hunting cabin let for the season covered?
If you are living in it, yes — making a home of a place over several months brings the letting standards into play. A couple of nights in a lodge is judged by the standards drawn up for holiday accommodation.

South Dakota Division of Human Rights

The state agency that receives and investigates housing discrimination complaints in South Dakota, alongside HUD.

Agency guidance

42 U.S.C. §§ 3601-3619

The federal statute prohibiting housing discrimination, including on the basis of disability. Refusing a reasonable accommodation that a person with a disability needs to use and enjoy a dwelling is a form of discrimination under this Act.

Federal law

24 CFR § 100.204

HUD's regulation implementing the reasonable accommodation duty, including the example of waiving a no-pets rule for a person who needs an assistance animal.

Federal law

24 CFR § 100.202

Sets out the general prohibitions on disability discrimination in housing and limits inquiries into whether a person has a disability.

Federal law

HUD Notice FHEO-2020-01

HUD's central guidance on assistance animals in housing: the difference between a service animal and a support animal, what information a housing provider may request, and how requests should be assessed.

Federal law