Man camp

Man camps are temporary workforce housing to accommodate a large influx of high-paid workers in the resource extraction industries, especially in Canada and the United States.

Media and photography depicting the transient workers drawn to this boom led The New York Times to select 'man camp' as one of the most important words of 2012.

[5][3][6] One study of man camps documented three distinct types: ranging from dormitory style prefabricated compounds that provide full services for thousands of workers to informal congregations of RVs squatting on vacant land (possibly in violation of local ordinances).

[8][11] In the early 20th century, throughout the Permian Basin in west Texas, oil and gas industry companies often built permanent family housing for their employees in camps throughout the region.

[2] This type of company housing began to be replaced with temporary camps for transient workers in the 1950's and 1960's, as the boom-bust cycle of the oil and gas industry made it uneconomical to have a stable, permanent workforce.

[1] Use of the term 'man camp' became popular during the Bakken oil boom, which began in 2006, peaked in 2012, and draws large numbers of workers—overwhelmingly men—into western North Dakota, creating a housing shortage.

Type 3 camps are typically small informal congregations of RVs squatting on vacant lots with no administration and possibly in violation of local ordinances.

[14] Ana Condes suggests a legal strategy for tribes to make use of 'Bad men clauses' in 1867–68 treaties that could compel federal law enforcement to protect Indigenous women from the violence of man camps.