LAS VEGAS—Beneath the glitz and glamour of the Las Vegas Strip, hundreds of hidden homeless people live in the filth and squalor of a 500-mile network of tunnels.

Often referred to as “mole people” or “tunnel people,” they remain underground, out of sight, to avoid—among other dangers—the deadly desert sun. They represent only a fraction of the thousands of homeless individuals in Southern Nevada.

Summertime temperatures can soar above 120 degrees Fahrenheit, while winter temperatures often dip below freezing. The tunnels offer shade and shelter from the wind, but they are dark and dangerous, prone to flooding, and rife with illicit drugs, violent crime, and disease.

On a sunny mid-November morning, Louis Lacey, the homeless response team director for HELP of Southern Nevada, prepares teams of outreach workers to engage with homeless individuals at several known encampments in the city.

That morning more than 800 people—half of them youth—woke up in a HELP program bed, all of them assigned to caseworkers. The nonprofit organization, founded more than 50 years ago, is one of the largest social service agencies in the state.

Lacey, a former struggling musician-turned-meth-addict, experienced homelessness in both Los Angeles and Las Vegas. He eventually overcame his decades-long drug addiction through a peer-to-peer recovery rehab facility, where he renewed the faith in God he had known as a child, he said.

He has been clean and sober since New Year’s Day 1997 after completing a 12-step recovery program at the facility, where he later worked. He pursued education and eventually became a director before joining HELP.

“I’ve been in this line of work for over 25 years,” he said.

Lacey joined HELP 17 years ago. He spent more than a decade on an outreach team and remembers trekking through a tunnel during his first day on the job.

Today, between 1,000 and 1,500 homeless—the highest concentration in the city—live in the tunnels, he says, although some reports have estimated there may be twice that many.

This year marked a 13-year year high in the number of homeless with an increase in the percentage of black people, families with children, and cases of chronic homelessness, according to Clark County’s annual homeless census. Southern Nevada’s 2024 point-in-time count, an annual snapshot of homelessness, identified 7,906 homeless people on Jan. 25, a 20 percent increase from the previous year’s 6,566.

Tunnel Threats

At a tunnel entrance near the corner of Albert and Palos Verdes streets on Nov. 14, a large tarp covered the opening where the storm sewer empties into Flamingo Wash, part of the drainage system that leads to Lake Mead.

Lacey has walked this three-mile tunnel which reaches the Strip beneath Caesars Palace.

An Epoch Times photojournalist steps over a welcome mat on the way down the embankment to get a closer look. He approaches a corner of the tarp where it was slightly pushed aside from the tunnel, but his curiosity is promptly met with several flashlight beams from inside.

Two men walk out of the tunnel where a large crowbar is strategically placed. They warn the journalists and outreach teams to back off.

Outreach teams have been exposed to violence in the past, and HELP doesn’t take chances with their lives or safety.

“There are tunnels that we do not go in because we’ve been threatened,” he said. “All they had to do was ask, and we left the tunnel,” Lacey said.

About a month ago, a machete-wielding man attacked several homeless people living in one of the tunnels, Lacey said. Police arrested a suspect and took him into custody.

“We had to close our response to that tunnel system down,” he said. “We had to work with the detectives until they found him, and then we were able to go back in there.”

One of the machete attack victims and his brother were rescued from the tunnel and are now going through the process to get housing, Lacey said.

Some of the tunnels are more treacherous than others, depending on who dwells inside.

“We go to tunnels all the time, and we work with the folks in the tunnels so it’s not like ... all those people are bad,” he said.

Generally, tunnel dwellers are more hardcore than those in above-ground encampments and just want to be left alone, he said.

“They’re underground, and they’re deep in there,” he said. “We’ve gone as far as a mile or two in the tunnels. They’re in there living [with] furniture, household stuff, all of that.”

HELP outreach teams also work with Shine A Light, another non-profit group dedicated to helping tunnel dwellers, and a unit of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department called the HOT (Homeless Outreach Team).

“It’s a special metro team of officers that will go out with us and other outreach teams,” Lacey said. “Us and Shine A Light, we’re the tunnel people. Nobody else goes.”

Even though the tunnel crews have flashlights and wear hard hats and gloves, venturing inside is always risky, he said.

The tunnels are wet and slippery with low-hanging pipes and the air quality can be questionable. Rats, dogs, cats, and other animals are running around among furniture, bicycles, and other obstacles. And, some rescue workers have slipped, fallen, and been stuck with discarded dirty needles, which means going to a hospital for post-exposure treatment, he said.

Flash Floods

HELP puts up posters warning people to stay clear of the washes and storm drains because homeless people can drown in the tunnels during flash floods.

“Vegas is a gambling town, and like everything else, when you’re underground, you’re gambling,” he said.

The stakes are much higher than money.

Flash floods often occur in the Mojave Desert, quickly transforming dry tunnels into torrents. Even if there is no rain in the immediate area, runoff from the mountains or water released from storm detention basins can strike suddenly without warning. Debris carried down the tunnels can be deadly, he said.

“The water is not what initially kills you. What gets you is ... the bike parts, the couches, the shopping carts, the beds, the bed frames,” he said. “All of that will knock you down, and once you go down, there’s no coming back. You will drown.”

Construction of the storm drains began in the 1980s and it has been an ongoing project ever since to prevent massive street floods.

“In the late 70s, there were several huge storms where vehicles were washed right down the Strip, and there was water just running right through the middle of casinos,” Lacey said.

While the storm drains have been extremely successful in keeping streets “from turning into rivers,” they also provide prefab shelters that provide shade away from the view of the public and law enforcement.”

Rain and Heat Protocols

HELP receives much of its funding from Clark County by way of federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) grants and is contracted to provide services during what is known as rain and heat protocols.

When rain is forecast, HELP is notified and outreach teams are dispatched to the storm drains and washes where they post signage, warning the homeless the rain is coming and to stay clear of the tunnels.

One poster reads, “Stay Out! Stay Alive!’ and lists places they can go for alternative shelter.

Usually, most of them get out of the tunnels in time, but there have been instances when people or their pets have been swept away, Lacey said.

“That is always heartbreaking,” he said.

The summer heat protocol activates when temperatures exceed 107 degrees Fahrenheit. HELP teams drive through the streets and visit encampments to offer homeless people transportation to designated cooling stations at air-conditioned government buildings, such as recreation centers and public libraries.

The crews carry frozen water bottles, burn cream, and sunscreen. If anyone requires medical attention, they transport them to hospitals or call 911.

“This year, we hit 120 degrees. That was the ambient temperature at the airport. That’s not what’s happening on the street. On the street it was 130-plus,” he said.

Lacey knows of one woman who passed out in the heat and suffered burns from the sun and hot pavement.

“By the time they got her off the street, she had third-degree burns on her legs, and that caused her to lose one of her legs below the knee. That happens,” he said. “People die out here all the time of the heat, and so that’s also another issue that we deal with.”

Social Constructs

Each hidden underground encampment, as well as those above ground, particularly the larger ones, develops as a microcosm of mainstream society, complete with its own social construct, Lacey said.

“They’re organized and roles will start to be clearly defined, such as the person who is the mayor, the spokesman, or the leader of the encampment,” he said. “You may have individuals that go out and secure resources. They’ll bring back copper, they’ll bring back bicycle parts, water or food or whatever is needed.”

And there are the “camp moms,” the more motherly, nurturing types and the peacemakers, Lacey said.

The camps also have their own justice systems.

“Stealing is not OK,” he said. “You do not steal within the camp.”

Some individuals have had their belongings burned up because they have violated a rule or stolen from others in the camps.

Outside the camp, the rules don’t apply, and it’s no secret that shoplifting is an easy way to earn money for alcohol and drugs, he said.

Unlike some states such as California where shoplifting has become more like “currency-free shopping,” he said, there has been a shift back toward more law enforcement in Nevada.

“You will get arrested, and you will go to jail,” he said. “They’ve got to. It’s out of hand.”

Unsafe Camping Ordinance

On Nov. 5, the Clark County Board of Commissioners approved a new Unsafe Camping Ordinance aimed at getting homeless people out of the tunnels and into shelters. Under the new law, which is set to take effect on Feb. 1, 2025, homeless people who refuse shelter and services or decline to relocate from encampments could face fines of up to $1,000 or up to 10 days in jail.

The original proposed ordinance was amended to reduce jail sentences from six months to 10 days.

The ordinance stipulates that homeless people must be notified of locations of shelters and social services before police can arrest them, and under the statute, they can’t be apprehended if there are no services available.

For Lacey and the HELP teams, their job remains the same.

“Our teams are adept at meeting each client at their level and working with them to overcome the barriers that keep them homeless. Camping ban or no camping ban. It doesn’t really change anything for us,” he said. “Our goal is to get them from homelessness into some type of housing.”

Homeless people often face mental health and substance abuse issues, and some have medical, legal, or financial problems. Many also lack identification, which presents challenges; HELP assists them through the process all the same, he said.

“I don’t know how effective the camping ban is going to be or what the enforcement will actually look like because camping bans have existed before,” he said. “It’s not like there is going to be some mass deportation of people going to jail.”

HELP prefers to take a less punitive approach to “how we deal with our unhoused neighbors,” he said.

How Many Homeless?

In recent years, the United States has experienced record high levels of homelessness. On a single night in January 2023, 653,104 individuals were homeless, marking a 12.1 percent increase compared to 2022, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, a nonprofit organization founded in 1983.

The homeless point-in-time count last updated in September shows 75,312 homeless in the Greater Los Angeles area alone, with 45,252 in the city proper.

Although HELP does receive private donations, its funding is largely grant-driven, Lacey said.

“It’s more government,” he said.

HELP operates six outreach teams comprised of 30 full-time employees.

“We go into tunnels, we go into washes, we go into abandoned homes and abandoned buildings. We go into the parks. We go out in the desert, we go to vacant lots,” he said. “We go anywhere there are people living in places not meant for human habitation. Basically, what we do is put a whole social services agency in our backpacks, and we go out and meet with clients that normally would not receive services.”

Outreach workers also carry Naloxone, more commonly known by the brand name Narcan, which can prevent overdose deaths from opioids.

Fentanyl, a deadly synthetic opioid much stronger than heroin, has added another layer to the homelessness crisis, keeping some people homeless and “making a bad situation worse in so many ways,” Lacey said.

The damage it does to people and the rapid rate at which they decline is alarming, he said.

“It’s highly addictive, the withdrawals are horrible,” Lacey said. “We really need to get more folks out into the field and more substance abuse treatment resources brought to bear on this problem.”

HELP is not only a broker of services, but the agency assists the homeless with navigating their way through the process to get housing and other services, Lacey said.

“I’m very big on the navigation part because when I was homeless, I was unable to navigate through systems,” he said.

The agency worked with one woman who was in her late 40s or early 50s who didn’t qualify for housing because she had outstanding warrants for her arrest. She was on a bike path on the side of a wash with two dogs and a cat, Lacey said, recalling that the crowded encampment wreaked of rotting food.

“It was so hot when we got there, she was literally pouring water on the dogs and cats to keep them alive,” he said. “She just broke down, crashed.”

The woman, who had blisters on her skin, told the HELP team “I can’t do this no more,” and asked for help, Lacey said.

HELP scheduled a court date for her and accompanied her to the courtroom about a week later. There, she was arrested for failing to appear in court previously and faced potential jail time.

When the woman began to sob, a marshal took pity on her and escorted her to a judge, who sentenced her to work with HELP. The judge gave HELP one month to obtain her identification and secure housing for her. When she returned to court 30 days later, the judge dismissed her case.

“That was really cool on the marshal’s part ... and the judge was compassionate as well,” he said. “Here’s the thing: You can’t arrest your way out of homelessness, and you can’t put every homeless person in jail, and so the system didn’t fail this time.”

‘Paying It Forward’

Jaqualyne Peeples, an outreach worker who was on the scene handing out water and offering services to people in the encampments in November, told The Epoch Times she was homeless before she joined the HELP outreach team due to domestic violence, mental health issues, and substance abuse.

“I was on the streets for three years, committing crimes, getting high, not caring about anybody, including myself,” she said.

During that time, outreach workers in partnership with the agency tried to help her but she refused.

“It took them three years, but finally I accepted services,” she said. “I was in treatment for nine months because I was such a nightmare. I had a lot of trauma.”

Peeples, 38, got off the streets about four years ago, got clean, and was eventually reunited with her child.

“I got my baby back,” she said. “I have full custody.”

When she was homeless and doing drugs, Peeples was especially inspired by one outreach worker who would seek her out and offer help.

“There was just something about her,” she said. “I wanted to be in the trenches just like her, paying it forward.”

Peeples had a strong desire to help other homeless people, but she knew she needed more “clean time” and more experience dealing with other addicts in recovery, she said.

“So, I worked at a drug treatment center, but I continuously applied to HELP when they had open positions, and then they ended up hiring me,” she said.

The Homeless

Lacey helped a homeless veteran who had open sores so severely infected that flies were swarming around his feet. The HELP team found him living near a wash and took him to a Veterans Affairs emergency clinic less than half a mile away. He was later placed in a Salvation Army program that provides housing for veterans.

Sandra Esparza, a public relations official for HELP who accompanied Lacey and the outreach teams on the November trek, told The Epoch Times that Lacey’s words to the veteran brought her to tears:

“‘You served us. Now, let us serve you,’” she said. “Those words will never leave my head.”

Lacey said America hasn’t made good on its promise to veterans.

“We made a deal, and the deal was you go do all that terrible stuff to make sure that we can have good lives and when you get back, we’re going to take care of you,” he said. “Well, we didn’t follow up on that deal, and that’s not acceptable under any circumstances,” he said.

A homeless woman at one camp, who spoke to The Epoch Times on the condition of anonymity, said she had left her husband because she was having problems with his family and had nowhere else to go.

HELP provided the woman, who was using water from the storm sewer to wash clothes, with a clean T-shirt and drinking water.

Several pit bulls guarded another camp, with mainly Spanish-speaking homeless people camped below on the banks of a wash. One man was cooking breakfast over a fire when outreach teams arrived while another had put up Christmas decorations around his tent.

Carlos

A 56-year-old Mexican immigrant living under a tarp in one of the tunnels said he worked at a casino in Henderson for 16 years before it closed. He has worked part-time at a car wash for $20 to $40 a day in cash but hasn’t been able to find steady work, he said.

“I don’t have a job, and I don’t have money for a place to live,” he said.

Carlos said he’s searching for his two daughters who he said are missing.

“I was in the police department. I make a report, and I want some answers,” he said, in broken English.

Kimberly

Sitting in her tent on a vacant lot with her dog, Selena, and two old guitars—one “busted up” and the other missing strings—Kimberly, a 52-year-old homeless woman, wept as she told the response team that her husband had been murdered during a robbery about a year ago.

She and her husband stayed at a motel for about two years, but the owners decided to sell the place and gave everybody a 30-day notice, Kimberly said.

“So that’s how we ended up on the streets,” she said. “We were trying to save up our money to get a home. It’s terrible. I miss him.”

He was killed for $100 that he had withdrawn from an ATM, she said.

“He went to go get some money at the 7-Eleven up the road. This guy followed him. I guess he thought he was going to get all his money,” she said. “He ended up hitting him in the back of the head with nunchucks and they couldn’t get the bleeding to quit.”

Kimberly has worked with HELP to begin the housing assessment process but said she won’t go to a shelter, because she can’t bring her dog.

“I was getting Social Security, but stuff happened with that,” she said. “I’ve got to go down and redo it, but it’s hard to do in the summertime. It’s hard to walk with her. She gets too hot,” she said, motioning to Selena, a Jack Russell terrier sleeping in the back of the tent.

“I hate the summer. I’m so glad when winter gets here, but then at night it’s too cold,” she said.

Originally from New Mexico, Kimberly said she’s been living in Las Vegas for about 16 years and has been homeless for about the last six.

Kimberly has no family in Las Vegas but hopes someday to be reunited with her five teenage children in California, she said.

Pets, Belongings

Two reasons some homeless individuals avoid shelters are that pets are not allowed and there are restrictions on the number of personal belongings they can bring, Esparza said.

Many homeless people, women especially, have dogs for protection and have grown attached to them, she said.

While some carry their most prized possessions on their backs, others have shopping carts full of belongings that may not mean anything to others, but to them “it’s everything they own,” Esparza said.

Sometimes during a camp abatement or cleanup, homeless people are distraught over the loss of something as simple as a crayon drawing which may have sentimental value to them, Lacey said.

“To everybody else, that’s just some scribble, but to the person that has that, it may be the last memento they have from their child, and they’re holding on,” he said. “You’re a human being in a dehumanizing situation. You’re holding on to any shred of normalcy or something that reminds you of a better time, and these things become important to you.”

Although shelters have limited capacity for everyone’s pets and belongings, shelters in Las Vegas are working to overcome those additional barriers, Lacey said.

‘Ambassador of Kwan’

Though his job is hard and heartbreaking, it comes with the satisfaction of helping people regain their dignity.

“We want everyone that we work with to feel like we’re their Ambassador of Kwan,” Lacey said, referencing a line from the movie “Jerry Maguire” in which football player Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr.) tells his agent, Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise), “You’re my Ambassador of Kwan” for fighting to secure the deal he needs to be happy.

“Anytime we can celebrate the small victories, then we’re their ‘Ambassador of Kwan,’” Lacey said. “We’re bringing the respect, the dignity, the love, and the care to the client.”

HELP uses the homeless management information system to follow up with clients to see how they’re doing, and make sure they’re still housed.

Lacey shared a success story that happened that week when a woman, who had been living in an abandoned building with her dogs, was rescued. She called to express her gratitude.

“We housed her, and she called us yesterday. She got a job,” Lacey said.