Don't Let Vegas Homeless Tunnels Become a Zoo

by Josie Raymond · 2010-01-05 13:49:00 UTC
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Photo credit: Associated Press via NPRBy now you might have seen the story about the 300 homeless (mostly men, mostly addicted) that live in the flood tunnels under Las Vegas. Countless news outlets, including NPR, the Miami Herald and the Huffington Post, picked up the story from the Associated Press yesterday. Many also ran the AP's slideshow and video. The story is captivating.

But it's hardly new. A book that documented the community, Beneath the Neon, was released in 2007. In the last year, the fact that there are homeless people living in Las Vegas' tunnels has also been reported by the Los Angeles Times, ABC News, CNN, Britain's The Sun, Nightline, the New York Times and more. Before that, the book Tunnel Kids, from 2001, chronicled the lives of teenagers living in tunnels between Arizona and Mexico. 1995's The Mole People covered the people who live in New York City's abandoned Subway tunnels. Wherever people are homeless, and tunnels provide a modicum of comfort and security, it can be reasonably expected that people will inhabit them.

I was reminded of a particularly harsh journalism professor I had. "News is, by definition, new," she told us. And the AP's story, for all its macabre allure, is nothing new. Best case, by repeatedly profiling the people who live underground in Las Vegas, the media is inspiring people to act on their behalf. (Getting in touch with HELP of Southern Nevada is the best way to start.) Worst case, the tunnels are being made into zoos and we're all willing spectators. What do you think?

Photo credit: Associated Press via NPR

Josie Raymond is a Change.org editor who has reported from the streets of the South Bronx, written for several magazines that folded (not her fault) and fixed thousands of typos.
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