Homeless People Live in Tunnels Under Las Vegas

(CBS)  Fortunes are won and lost in Las Vegas all the time. But the city itself has been on the losing end of the foreclosure crisis. The city's homeless population has grown from nearly 12,000 two years ago to nearly 14,000 today. Yet there are fewer than 1,000 beds in shelters, forcing many to go to extremes in seeking shelter. CBS News correspondent Seth Doane goes underneath the Vegas strip.

Las Vegas was built on the dream of striking it rich. But beneath the bright lights is a much darker world for those who've struck out.

"When we come down here a lot of times, we don't know what to expect," said Macheo Willis of HELP of Southern Nevada.

Armed with flashlights, Willis took CBS News correspondent Seth Doane into the tunnels underneath Las Vegas. They journeyed deep into a labyrinth of flood tunnels that snake for more than 200 miles, up to 20 feet below the ritzy casinos.

Down here, hundreds, maybe even a thousand, homeless people escape the desert heat and the pressures of the world above.

Mike, who's hooked on meth, says tunnel life was an adventure at first. But now, eight years later?

"What a big mistake I made," he said.

Names written on the tunnel walls now serve as a roster of those who've made mistakes. Barry, who spent seventeen years in prison, lives here. He has two books, which he calls his "library."

Amid the scraps and misfortune, lives are pieced together. Sali and her partner Diego fled to these tunnels just six weeks ago.

Sali worked as a cashier in the Frontier Hotel for 21 years, before it closed three years ago.

"Look at where I am at," she cries. "I got lots of pain, you know? A lot of pain."

Sali and Diego used to lay tiles in homes, until the construction boom went bust. Diego said the recession didn't just hit him. He said it, "hit me in my head - so bad."

Instead of laying tile, they've now laid a line of moss to keep the water off their bed.

Diego uses a bucket to collect tunnel water runoff for a "shower."

"You came from Cuba here in search of the American dream," Doane said. "This doesn't look like the American dream."

"Millions of people lose American dreams already. It's not only me," he replied.

Living Under the Las Vegas

Journalist Matt O'Brien wrote a book, "Beneath the Neon," about this elaborate subterranean world of beds with headboards, makeshift pantries, and even art on the walls.

"Down here, you have some privacy, you know?" O'Brien said. "You can kind of live on your own."

O'Brien's interest has turned into advocacy - and he's connected folks in the tunnels with a local non-profit group called "HELP of Southern Nevada" - which has since started an outreach program down below.

"Metaphorically, we could be that - that light at the end of the tunnel - we could be that prayer that's answered," Macheo Willis said.

It was for Randy, who now has his own apartment thanks to "HELP" - which has placed more than seventy people in transitional housing. It gives hope to the hundreds still living in the shadows beneath the neon.

[BarbaraAnnJackson]

CASE IN POINT: FORECLOSURE MILLS, JUDICIAL FRAUD, CONSUMER EXPLOITATION, GOVERNMENT SHAMS

?Media headlines are abuzz with what is going down with foreclosure mills in Florida, particularly foreclosure mill baron, Attorney David J. Stern. Unscrupulous foreclosures are more criminally exploitive than what becomes reported; it is not easy to detect nor prove. Even so, appalling collection abuses have resulted in . . .? @ http://www.lawgrace.org/2010/08/14/foreclosure-mills-judicial-fraud-consumer-exploitation-government-shams/

[OmegaWolf747]

The real answer to the problem is to bring back the jobs that were outsourced 30 years ago (manufacturing and the like) as well as to get the illegals out of the tanning factories and grape fields and to only hire American workers.

[newsterI]

Oh yeah, we have 14,000 homeless living under bridges and tunnels there and no money to solve this problem, but notice how we ALWAYS seem to find millions and billions of dollars and container shiploads full of food to ship OVERSEAS the very next day to some kraphole country that hates our guts!

From the Pakistan flood article;

"Despite the infusion of cash aid, humanitarian supplies and six American helicopters flying vital rescue missions, it has become extremely difficult to find anyone among the flood victims willing to voice support for the U.S.

Khan laments the criticism against Islamic groups carrying out relief work. "They at least have a heart. The U.S. doesn't have a heart, the Americans have simply killed our people."

Lali Jan, a taxi driver in Nowshera who found his cab washed away in the flood, agreed without hesitation.

"The Americans and the Pakistani government are to blame. They spend more on their wars but give very little to our people. The Americans may not have caused the floods, but their agenda will always be against us, while our own brothers from Islamic groups are helping us very generously."

I say , SKREW these ingrates over there, why the hel1 are we sending OUR cash, container ships full of millions of dollars worth of free food, clothing, supplies and all the rest to places like this while here in the US we have 14,000 people homeless in Nevada alone who were paying TAXES??!!

[addnarm]

there is no problem so bad that you can not make it worse.

spreading hate around the world, one rant filled post at a time.

way to go "newsteri"

[SocietysNightmare]

"addnarm" can save that noise! I agree 100%! Humanitarian aid goes everywhere while Americans starve. Too, I wonder how many people could be fed with the money we spend on those Children's Crusades in the Gulf (Iraq & Afghanistan)?!

[wyo-kid]

Maybe these poor jobless people could do the work that the illegal immigrates do. Would the employers of the illegals hire them though. Maybe they could pretend to have just waded across the Rio Grandee.

[book_of_wally]

This reminds me of the homeless problem we had during the Reagan Bush years. Everyone forgets about that. They think that under Reagan it was all roses. This is all our fault. We are the ones who buy the foreign goods and wonder where the jobs have gone.

[mecanik-2009]

Maybe they found a solution for the homeless. A few amenities and these people would be quite happy. Maybe create a thriving city down there.

[book_of_wally]

Ya until a big rainstorm washes it all away.

[FREEWOLFKID]

Someone should do a TV story of these forgotten people. there are to many people dying under bridges and in abandon buildings, and other places. They are the forgotten people, the homeless some of these Americans Fought for this country! alot of these people are alone, They have no one else. No family. I'm just trying to say, If we can pull together in a crisis, Like the ones we have had in the past, I'm sure we can fix this problem. Please don't forget these people. don't think Out of sight out of MIND.

[run2jazz2]

I pray for this world every night before I lay my head down to sleep. I pray that the economy would do better for those looking for a job and I also pray that the racial sickness which plagues this nation would be no more.

I know that GOD who can do all, know all and has seen all will be there for those who believe, but I do think that HE wants mankind to realize that without him in their lives nothing can be accomplished. I put my everlasting faith in GOD and not in man as he has failed his brother everytime he gets a chance. May GOD watch over those who are suffering in this world!

[Simifanene]

May the Heavenly Father send his angles, singing words of comfort, peace and inspiration to these poor souls. May His Angels hold their hands, and take them to a better place.

[JayAdler1]

My mother, who went through the Holocaust spent much time hiding from the stormtroopers down in the sewers of Hungary.It was called the Underground.My mother was a strikingly beautiful woman back then and like most Europeans always had a cigarette in hand.When she was alive she spoke of the unimaginable atrocities that occurred down in the the Underground. What I like to recall is the portrait some artist stuck down there painted of her sitting up with perfect posture holding up a cigarette. When I read this account of Las Vegas This vignette from World War ll somehow entered my thoughts. Of course it was worse over in Budapest in 1942 but these poor people in Las Vegas, if you think about it are running from something as well.

[jmichael07]

Interesting, but so many people "running from something"??? Oppression, rather, seems so strikingly "beautiful" and somehow self-justified to those who lack the empathy to feel it, because only they can afford it.