The lights of the Las Vegas Strip can be seen from outer space. The ding of the ringside bell at Ceasar’s Palace is part of the ethos of boxing. It is largely considered the entertainment capital of the world. But if you zoom in … past the hum of traffic … past the bustle of tourists … down through the iconic skyline and past the neon glow … under the city lives an entire civilization of people marginalized and cast aside by the mainstream. Prostitutes, drug addicts, the mentally infirm, fugitives and runaways call the underside of Las Vegas home. These are the Las Vegas Mole People; and this is the YoreTown Podcast. 

We find ourselves in Las Vegas because my dear sweet co-hosts Megh and Matt recently returned from a trip out there for, among other things, their marriage! So congrats to them for finally tying the knot. I’m sure the Elvis impersonator or rock-n-roll Jesus really made the night a spectacle. Happy for you guys! 

So picture this: You have a busy overpass on the outskirts of Las Vegas. Cars are rushing by in that hot hot Nevada desert sun. The shot tracks back to show a tarp flapping over the opening of a storm water culvert but it isn’t the round steel or black plastic ones we see around here, this is a massive six foot by 10 foot corridor. You push the tarp aside and you are hit with the smell of feces, urine, body odor, decay, fires. A pile of trash shifts to your right, you look down and kick it and instead of it being nothing or a raccoon or something, it is a human being with a needle in their arm. You look up and further down this drainage chute, you see the walls are covered with graffiti and smeared with materials best left unsaid. Littered about on either side of you are piles of human tragedy. Living breathing human beings in piles of their own meager, filthy possessions hoping a huge storm doesn’t come through and flush them out. And if you had the ability to chase the over 600 miles of tunnels which crisscross the underbelly of Vegas, you’d find hundreds of people living like this. 

So, why are they there? 

According to various media reports, Wikipedia and the Shine A Light Foundation (more on them later), the predominant reason these people seek refuge in these tunnels is for protection from the brutal temperatures Vegas experiences at different parts of the year. In the summertime, temperatures can soar well beyond 100 degrees fahrenheit and, in the winter, they can drop below freezing come nightfall. Living underground provides these homeless individuals protection from not just the elements but these temperature swings as well. 

Another huge reason is the housing market. Overwhelmingly, even your red-blooded American 9-5 middle class citizen cannot afford property in the greater Las Vegas metropolitan area. So, most need to rely on the vetting process of housing authorities and landlords and that’s where a lot of these people’s march toward the tunnels begins. Again, the overwhelming majority of those living in these conditions are drug addicts, sex workers, fugitives, felons, degenerate gamblers, etc. Far from the types of people landlords and housing authorities really want renting a place to live amongst the straight edged - or at least straight edged enough to have a bank account and a credit score - people looking for condos or apartments in the area. They have little to no money, let alone credit or assets of any kind. They were commonly on public assistance and welfare prior to dropping off the grid and descending into the tunnels. 

To put a face to this, Insider.com did a piece on these conditions in 2019. In that story, we meet a couple named Tommy and Shay, they are both in their mid-fifties at this time. Tommy is, admittedly, savagely addicted to crystal meth. So much so that he has a criminal record and he was turned away from private landlords and all forms of public assistance. Shay and Tommy had been together nearly a decade at that point and Shay, who was on welfare and living in a subsidized apartment with furniture, running water, a bathroom, a cat and a dog, decided to leave that all behind once her husband was evicted and followed him into the tunnels just outside of Ceasar’s Palace. At the time of the Insider interview, the two had a small cubicle of sorts which they called home. They had a cardboard front door on which they wrote “Aloha,” the walls were adorned with Hawaiian prayers. They had a mattress, various boxes arranged into crude furnishings and storage, a camp stove and a pot and two carpets. The story made no mention of which one or if both were of Hawaiian descent but Tommy did admit to still being a meth addict. 

The Insider article also details the violence and, frankly, terror, ever present in these conditions. The biggest and most ominous being floods. After all, these are storm drains. If Vegas gets hit by a storm, the water needs to go somewhere and that somewhere is where these displaced persons call home. When a storm begins, residents know they only have minutes before all of their possessions will be washed out and into the open air. And, depending on where you live in the tunnel, the risk of being swept up by surging water and tumbling debris varies greatly. Or, if you’re like Tommy and just ripped your meth pipe, you very well could not be aware of the danger and that could be it for you .. dead in the gutter. 

Aside from flash floods, again, these tunnels are inhabited by less than savory folks, violence is rampant. Insider interviewed another mid-fifties woman named Angell who had been living in the tunnels for over five years at the time. She explains how there is zero surveillance down there, no cameras, no public servants come and check the tunnels and the only time the police show up is in response to a call from a nearby neighborhood, at which time the residents are forced out into the streets once again. And in the shadow of this negligence, human atrocities can be committed. Angell claims to have witnessed first hand a homeless person cut off the fingers of “an artist” who was living in the tunnels at the time. 

So what’s being done? This is living history. This is a situation going on and developing right now, as we record this. Not our typical old and dusty history, this is current. 

To alleviate the struggle of those living in these tunnels, organizations like Shine a Light Foundation are going out into these communities, performing outreach and offering services. Shine a Light, the organization’s motto being “Bringing humanity to those living underground,” seem to be leading the way on this front with, among other things, their seven step program to rehabilitate those searching for a way out. This program, known as IPATH - Instant Placement with Access to Treatment and Housing - begins with Shine a Light workers descending into the tunnels for outreach where they offer services and hand out critically needed supplies like bottled water, food, socks, flashlights, headlamps and batteries. If a displaced person takes Shine up on their offer for help, they are allowed to begin the two year project the goal of which is “to ensure that there is no reason to ever feel like anyone has to recidivate back to their previous situation.  

The organization was founded by Matthew O’Brien, an author, journalist and grassroots organizer. His book “Beneath the Neon” chronicles what he has experienced in his 20+ years of working with those living under the streets of Las Vegas. If you’re hearing this and would like to help, Shine a Light’s website offers several ways to donate including a PayPal link and an Amazon Wishlist. There are also ways to establish a monthly recurring donation or, if you’re in the Las Vegas area and really, really want to help out, you can become a hands-on volunteer. Visit their website for more information, shinealightlv.com. 

In closing … 

“You cannot do kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.” 

Ralph Wald Emerson

Sources: 

https://www.8newsnow.com/news/local-news/primal-life-escape-from-las-vegas-tunnels-starts-with-volunteer-visits/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole_people

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_O'Brien

https://www.insider.com/homeless-people-are-living-in-storm-tunnels-underneath-las-vegas-2019-9

What We Do

https://www.rd.com/list/kindness-quotes/ (Reader’s Digest, quote)