Fort Collins pit bull owners struggle to find housing

Growing up in Windsor, Kayla Hevner always had a picture of the place she’d raise her family: A nice house in the suburbs.

Three bedrooms. White-picket fence.

Adding two pit bulls to her family changed everything.

“Because of the breed of dog I have, a lot of those types of houses aren’t going to rent to you,” Hevner said on a sunny morning at Blevins Park in Fort Collins, near the rental home she and her husband found after a monthslong search.

It’s hard enough to find an affordable home to rent in Fort Collins, where the average rent is about $1,400 and the vacancy rate sits at 0.23 percent. Add a pit bull to the mix, and that dream of a white picket fence is just that, a dream.

A Coloradoan search of local apartment complexes showed many don’t allow dogs, and those that do almost always have breed restrictions. The Coloradoan contacted eight Fort Collins complexes and property management companies seeking perspectives.

None responded.

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Landlords and property managers often say the restrictions are in place because their insurance companies won’t cover tenants who own “aggressive” dog breeds.

Breed restrictions aren’t unique to Fort Collins, but the issue stands out in a purportedly dog-friendly city where more than 45 percent of households are rented and many residents have dogs.

Because they have fewer options, Fort Collins renters who own pit bulls or other often-restricted dog breeds have to spend more time on the housing hunt. Hevner, whose family has moved often because of rent increases, generally starts looking for a new place six months before her lease is up.

Melinda Dean, who owns a pit bull and a Staffordshire terrier, was so tired of searching that she and her husband are now trying to buy a house.

They and their young son have lived with family since 2014, when they returned from Las Vegas because Dean wanted to raise her son in the city where she grew up.

“It got to a point where we realized renting wasn’t going to be an option,” she said. “It’s not something we were prepared for when we moved out here, but this really is a landlord’s market, and they get to pick and choose their tenants.”

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Hevner said she and her husband “got lucky” with their current house but applied for five to 10 places before other moves. She said they’re always upfront about their dogs with landlords and provide their own renters insurance.

Under the shade of a tall tree during a recent interview, Hevner’s 3-year-old daughter Kaydence wrestled with Karona, a 4-year-old pit bull with a pink nose, ever-wagging tail and short fur the color of peanut butter. Kaydence calls Karona her best friend.

Hevner got Karona from a backyard breeder when she was 8 weeks old, and her other pit bull, Chloe, belonged to her husband before they met. Neither of the dogs have hurt her daughter or anyone else, she said.

Yet, Hevner can’t forget what someone once said to her when she was pregnant with her daughter: “What are you going to do when your dog mauls your baby?”

“It’s heart-wrenching to me,” she said, on the verge of tears. “I’ve never met a pit bull that I didn’t like, that wasn’t genuinely nice. People just need to open their minds and their hearts.”

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Nancy Tranzow, founder of ColoRADogs, said pit bulls are affable, friendly dogs that are often high-drive because they’re muscular terriers. Purebred pit bulls, once the breed of choice for dog fighting were long ago bred to be aggressive toward other dogs, not people.

“That perceived risk really doesn’t have any scientific basis,” Tranzow said. “It has a lot of hysteria-based pseudoscience behind it, but as a society it’s often easy to grab hold of that hysteria before you actually look at the research.”

A Coalition for Living Safely with Dogs study of dog bite incidents reported in Fort Collins found the most commonly involved dog breed for bites was Labrador retriever, with about 13 percent of reports. Pit bulls and German shepherds followed with about 8 percent each.

But the study noted its results didn’t prove that certain breeds are more likely than other breeds to bite because there’s no reliable consensus of dog breed distribution in Fort Collins or Colorado. Tranzow added that dog bite reports are often made by the person who was bitten, and that person might not know dog breeds or had a good look at the dog.

Pit bulls and similar-looking dogs have been the victim of stereotyping, Tranzow said.

“When something happens, you want to find the boogeyman, and you want to destroy the boogeyman to prevent that from happening again,” she said.

Some pit bulls might bite, just like some dogs of any breed might bite, and pit bulls are just dogs, Tranzow said. That’s why ColoRADogs encourages leash laws, responsible ownership and careful socialization in “well-formed playgroups” rather than dog parks.

ColoRADogs is organizing a canine good renters program for dog owners who want to work on their dogs’ resume. The six-week program will review the rights and responsibilities of renters and seek to include input from insurance agencies and rental companies. Tranzow got funding for the program and is now looking for volunteers and a location.

“Fort Collins is probably the most dog-friendly area I’ve seen in Colorado, which is an interesting and curious juxtaposition when you look at the housing issue,” she said. “Our shelters don’t need to be overloaded with good family pets who are simply being discriminated against because of housing.”

Banned breeds

Other dog breeds commonly banned from Fort Collins rentals:

• Rottweilers
• Doberman pinschers
• Akitas
• Chow chows
• German shepherds
• Staffordshire terriers