I didn't mean to hijack your thread, dear willow, but since you are curious, I can tell you that Chile is divided into 17 regions. Each region is then divided into provinces. A province consists of certain municipalities. The number varies by province. I live in a relatively large, mostly rural, municipality, so we then have a lot of different areas that have their own name designations. Larger urban municipalities also have names for different neighborhoods.

I agree, it sounds like municipality here is probably like a county council there.They don't offer the sort of council housing like you have, but employ social workers that help inform residents about housing and other assistance programs.