Renters Feel A Monkey On Their Back

Two years after New Orleans reopened its doors from Hurricane Katrina, lack of available housing has allowed landlords to price many would-be tenants out of the city’s housing market. With residential areas slowly rebuilding to create more housing options, logic should dictate that rents will drop; but it seems the highest rents are still to come as New Orleans reclaims it’s highest ground—Monkey Hill.

“First the water rose, now it’s the rent,” complains 33-year-old Zach Bougelais, who lives with his parents’ in their one-story mid-city home.

“This was supposed to be a temporary situation, but people are crazy with what their charging now; so I’m still with my Mama and Daddy, and we’re trying to make the best of it.”

If living with your parents at 33 seems uncomfortable, imagine also sharing that same home with your wife, your two children, your elderly grandmother, your cousin and his out-of-work girlfriend, three dogs, two cats, and a cockatoo.

“Some days I don’t know what to do,” says Zach. “It feels like a zoo in here!”

Actually, Zach, it feels like a zoo out there too.

The New Orleans City Council has just approved plans to develop condos among the lions, tigers, and bears of Audubon Zoo supporting the position that the city’s future lies in above sea-level real estate.

The proposed condominiums have caused quite the controversy with opponents claiming that Audubon Zoo living is “for the birds.” But, despite their preventative efforts, the plan won unanimous approval last Thursday.

Council President Arnie Fielkow defended his decision.

“I believe in this development. I told the Audubon Nature Institute to make it happen. We need it as a city.”

The redevelopment plan includes the creation of three separate residential buildings: an African-themed complex near the rhino exhibit, an Indonesian-themed complex near the Komodo dragons’ lair, and the tree-house-inspired “Primate Village” resting atop Monkey Hill itself.

The completed development will comprise 113 condominiums altogether, selling for upwards of $350,000 each. Rents within the complex are expected, like the hill they rest upon, to be the highest in the city, leaving would-be renters like Zach Bougelais once again carrying the proverbial monkey on their backs—literally.

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