Shanty town
From Open Encyclopedia
Shanty towns (sometimes called bidonvilles) or the academic term informal settlements, are units of irregular low-cost and — usually on lands belonging to third parties, most often located in the periphery of the cities. These dwellings are often assembled in a patch-work fashion from pieces of plywood, corrugated metal, sheets of plastic, and any other material that will provide cover.
Residences are usually built without a license. They pose a fire hazard and are remarkable by their near total absence of numbered streets, sanitation networks, electricity, telephones, or plumbing. Shanty towns are mostly found in third world countries with an unequal distribution of wealth, such as South Africa, Philippines, Argentina (where they are referred to as villas miseria), Venezuela (where they are known as Barrios), Brazil (where slums and shanty towns are known as favelas) and Peru (where they are known as pueblos jóvenes). In some extreme cases, shanty towns can have populations approaching that of a city.
During the Great Depression of the 1930s (caused by the stock market crash of 1929), shanty towns appeared in cities across the United States because of the massive unemployment. Some were nicknamed "Hoovervilles" because the residents blamed the economic conditions on then-president Herbert Hoover. These conditions were blamed on Hoover since he did not believe in government interference in an attempt to end the depression.
The first recorded use of the word shanty, as meaning a crude dwelling, occurred in Ohio in 1820. It may have been derived from the French word chantier, meaning a building site. Alternatively, it could have been derived from the Irish sean tig, meaning "old house" or from the Nahuatl word chantli "home".
