{"id":13870,"date":"2018-03-13T09:35:02","date_gmt":"2018-03-13T14:35:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/?p=13870"},"modified":"2023-01-06T08:14:54","modified_gmt":"2023-01-06T14:14:54","slug":"the-city-under-the-strip-the-homeless-tunnel-people-of-las-vegas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/blog\/the-city-under-the-strip-the-homeless-tunnel-people-of-las-vegas\/","title":{"rendered":"Homeless in Las Vegas: Could You Live Underground?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Las Vegas is known for providing a luxurious home away from home for gamblers and party-goers who come to the city in droves, but there is a side to Vegas that often goes unseen by those visitors.<\/p>\n

Homelessness is a problem across the nation, but in Las Vegas it takes a particular slant thanks to the use of storm drain tunnels originally built in the 90s by the Hydro Conduit Corporation. With hundreds of homeless people literally living in tunnels underneath the strip, it’s quite a jarring situation in the opulent city of Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

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Image Credit: linkedin.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How It All Started<\/h2>\n

This phenomenon came to light in 2002, when Timmy \u201cT.J\u201d Weber used these tunnels to run from the police after he murdered his girlfriend. The homeless people living inside the tunnels are not murderers or killers \u2013 they\u2019re just people who have hit rock bottom due to addiction or some other hardship.\u00a0 According to Matthew O’Brien, who works with the homeless and is the author of a book about Vegas’ tunnel people called Beneath The Neon<\/a>, the causes of homelessness aren’t typically the reasons presented in the media.<\/p>\n

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Image Credit: linkedin.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He says, \u201cHomelessness, in my experience, is not caused by drug use, gambling, loss of employment or something like that. Typically there is a bigger problem or issue at the core: a mental illness, disease, traumatic event, etc. Drugs and gambling and things like that are a way to cope with the bigger problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city did little to help them, so they formed a community underneath the tunnels instead<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Who Are the Tunnel People?<\/h2>\n

Most of these homeless people seem to have lost their way<\/a> after a traumatic event. Some are\u00a0 veterans with post-traumatic stress, others have lost their jobs or been affected by drug or alcohol abuse. The easy access to casinos often adds further temptation, with many of the tunnel people reporting that they continue to gamble their money away.<\/p>\n

While some people are completely unemployed, others earn very little money which means they don\u2019t have enough to live on. Being so close to temptation, they end up misusing the little money they have. They go down to the tunnels usually as a last resort, a last place where they might survive.<\/p>\n

Living in the tunnels is not an easy life. Documentaries show that the tunnel people have to strategically decide how to place their bedding and belongings so that their things are not flooded, the actual purpose of the tunnels is to direct storm water flooding, after all..<\/p>\n