Board Thread:Midian Play-by-Post/@comment-24302820-20140620182614/@comment-24302820-20150522035321

Caisson Slums

Outro

Near the East Docks is the vagrant encampment known as the Caisson Slums. The name derives from large, hollow, concrete blocks within it that were once intended for expanding the port.

Before the fall, this was a large shipyard. It grew derelict over the years, and sediment filled in the lanes to the harbour. As the effort and expense of restoring it was greater than the city's new immigrants after the city's re-habitation were willing to endure, it began attracting the homeless and unwanted. Early growth focused on the Riverside and West Docks, allowing the vagrants to become entrenched as their numbers grew. The sediment deposition from longshore drift has also blocked sewage runoff, an essential service given Stormundia's damp warm climate.

Nowadays, the area is filled with shanties, tents, lean-tos, and makeshift huts. The inhabitants largely survive day-to-day, hand-to-mouth, by begging, stealing, or engaging in occasional illicit activity. A large source of their food is from donations by religious institutions, or just those religious folk inclined to help those less fortunate. The amount of food is always far less than sufficient for the number of mouths to feed. Added to this misery is the backing up of sewage—rain runoff and otherwise. This leaves the Caisson Slums a soggy, filthy, dump filled with the bottom rung on society's ladder.