The qualifier most write-ups bury

“Notwithstanding the Department’s enforcement determination in a given case, the Fair Housing Act provides that a complainant may file a civil action in an appropriate federal district court or state court within two years after the occurrence or termination of the alleged discriminatory housing practice. Nothing in this enforcement guidance affects the rights of parties to seek redress through a private action in court.”

This is an enforcement-priority memorandum, not a rule. HUD’s own criticism of the 2020 notice was that it skipped notice-and-comment, and the memorandum flags future rulemaking. The statute at 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(B) is untouched, and so is the case law — the memorandum itself cites two association cases, Revock v. Cowpet Bay West Condominium Ass’n, 853 F.3d 96 (3d Cir. 2017), and Arnal v. Aspen View Condominium Ass’n, 226 F. Supp. 3d 1177 (D. Colo. 2016).

The memorandum also expressly does not cover Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act or the Americans with Disabilities Act, and notes that a non-dog species can still qualify if it is trained.

Why Wyoming is the state where this matters most

In most states HUD’s retreat is partly absorbed by a state agency that investigates the same complaints under state law through HUD’s Fair Housing Assistance Program. Wyoming has no such agency. From the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Wyoming Advisory Committee report of December 2024:²

“To date, HUD has not certified that Wyoming’s fair housing law is substantially equivalent to the federal FHA. HUD also does not administer any FHAP grants to any Wyoming state or local government, nor FHIP grants to any Wyoming fair housing organization or non-profit.”

“In 2015, the Wyoming legislature passed the Wyoming Fair Housing Act… While the language of the Wyoming FHA is similar to that of the federal FHA, the substantive rights protected under the Wyoming FHA have not yet been certified by HUD as being ‘substantially equivalent’…”

“Although Wyoming passed its state FHA in 2015, the enforcement authority of the Wyoming FHA has not yet been assigned to any state agency. Wyoming residents seeking to make a complaint of discrimination are required to submit their complaint to the HUD’s Denver Regional Office in the neighboring state of Colorado, rather than a local or state enforcement agency within Wyoming.”

The Wyoming Fair Housing Act is at W.S. § 40-26-101 et seq. It exists, it is uncertified, and no Wyoming agency enforces it.

What that means in practice

A Wyoming complaint goes to HUD Denver, which now operates under the May 2026 standard. There is no state investigator applying a different test. So for Wyoming, the change in HUD’s enforcement posture is the entire administrative change — and the only route left for a resident whose untrained support-animal request is refused is the private civil action the memorandum expressly preserves: two years, federal or state court, at the complainant’s own expense.

Read from the other direction, that is the reason a board reading this as “we can refuse now” would be reading it too broadly. An agency declining to charge a case is not a court declining to hear one, and the two association decisions HUD itself cites are precisely the kind of litigation the memorandum leaves available.

Disparate impact: proposed, not final

The other half of HUD’s 2025–2026 fair housing work is frequently reported as done. It is not.

• September 17, 2025 — HUD memorandum withdrawing multiple FHEO guidance documents, including the 2013 and 2020 assistance-animal notices.
• January 14, 2026 — HUD proposed rule, “HUD’s Implementation of the Fair Housing Act’s Disparate Impact Standard,” which would remove 24 CFR part 100 subpart G (§ 100.500) and revise § 100.5(b).
• August 10, 2026 — supplemental proposed rule, 91 FR 51416.
• October 9, 2026 — comments on the supplemental proposal due.

24 CFR § 100.500 is still on the books and still binding. The rescission is proposed only. Separately, HUD has issued guidance directing FHEO to prioritise intentional-discrimination claims over disparate-impact theories — again a matter of enforcement priority rather than of what the regulation says.

Where Wyoming pet covenants stand

Wyoming has no statute regulating pet restrictions in community associations. Pet rules are covenant terms, construed as contract terms — Rafter J Ranch Homeowner’s Ass’n v. Stage Stop, Inc., 2024 WY 114, ¶ 20. Wyoming does have a service-animal provision in its public-accommodation statutes, amended in 2025, which is a different framework from fair housing accommodation.