More than a thousand people live in tunnels under Las Vegas
The tunnel system under Las Vegas is overrun with people these days. After all, all that glitters is not gold in the El Dorado of the United States. A lot of people fail to realise their dreams and lose the roof over their heads. A lot of them then end up in the tunnels of Las Vegas.
In the tunnels under the world-famous Caesars Palace homeless people have been sleeping in appalling conditions for years, many of them also addicted to drugs and with mental health problems. So writes The Washington Post after extensive research of its own in these drainage tunnels.
Social and homeless workers who go into the tunnels say they have noticed an increase in the number of people living underground as housing costs have skyrocketed and officials have adopted a zero-tolerance approach to homelessness.
The Washington Post went to see for itself the tunnel system under the world-famous Las Vegas Strip. Although dark and damp, the tunnels provide shelter from the desert sun, warmth when the temperature drops and privacy from the judgement of above-ground society. The tunnels were built in the 1990s and are about 600 miles long. According to homeless workers, 1,200 to 1,500 people live there. Many have built their own shelter in the tunnel, often from plywood and scraps of metal or brick, under the casinos that characterise the Strip.
(FVDV for Tagtik/Source: The Washington Post/Illustration: Unsplash)