Deep beneath Vegas\u2019s glittering lights lies a sinister labyrinth inhabited by poisonous spiders and a man nicknamed The Troll who wields an iron bar.<\/p>\n
But astonishingly, the 200 miles of flood tunnels are also home to 1,000 people who eke out a living in the strip\u2019s dark underbelly.<\/p>\n
Some, like Steven and his girlfriend Kathryn, have furnished their home with considerable care – their 400sq ft ‘bungalow’ boasts a double bed, a wardrobe and even a bookshelf.<\/p>\n
They have been there for five years, fashioning a shower out of a water cooler, hanging paintings on the walls and collating a library from abandoned books.<\/p>\n
Their possessions, however, are carefully placed in plastic crates to stop them getting soaked by the noxious water pooling on the floor.<\/p>\n
‘Our bed came from a skip oustide an apartment complex,’ Steven explains. ‘It’s mainly stuff people dump that we pick up. One man’s junk is another man’s gold.<\/p>\n
\u2018We get the stuff late at night so people don’t see us because it’s kind of embarrassing.\u2019<\/p>\n
Steven was forced into the tunnels three years ago after his heroin addiction led to him losing his job.<\/p>\n
He says he is now clean and the pair survive by \u2018credit hustling\u2019 in the casinos, donning second-hand clothes to check the slot machines for chips accidently left behind.<\/p>\n
Astonishingly, Steven claims he once found $997 (\u00a3609) on one machine.<\/p>\n
Further into the maze are Amy (left) and Junior who married in the Shalimar Chapel \u2013 one of Vegas\u2019s most popular venues – before returning to the tunnels for their honeymoon.<\/p>\n
They lost their home when they became addicted to drugs after the death of their son Brady at four months old.<\/p>\n
\u2018I heard Las Vegas was a good place for jobs,\u2019 Amy said. \u2018But it was tough and we started living under the staircase outside the MGM casino.<\/p>\n
\u2018Then we met a guy who lived in the tunnels. We\u2019ve been down here ever since.\u2019<\/p>\n
Matthew O\u2019Brien, a reporter who stumbled across the tunnel people when he was researching a murder case, has set up The Shine A Light foundation to help.<\/p>\n
These are normal people of all ages who\u2019ve lost their way, generally after a traumatic event,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n
\u2018Many are war veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress.<\/p>\n
\u2018It\u2019s not known how many children are living there, as they\u2019re kept out of sight, but I\u2019ve seen evidence of them \u2013 toys and teddy bears.\u2019<\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien has published a book on the tunnel people called Beneath The Neon.<\/p>\n
These evocative images which show the community’s astonishing way of life were taken by Austin Hargrave, a British photographer now based in the U.S.<\/p>\n
They show how the destitute and hopeless have constructed a community beneath the city and have even dedicated one section of tunnels to an art gallery filled with intricate graffiti. While the U.S. continues regular hand-outs to Israel, every night one thousand destitute make their beds in tunnels beneath the cities shimmering malls<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Economics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13842"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13844,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13842\/revisions\/13844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nSource: http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-1326187\/Las-Vegas-tunnel-people-How-1-000-people-live-shimmering-strip.html<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"