According to a July 2008 Housing and Urban Development report, Nevada has America’s highest rate of homelessness at 0.49 percent. Given a state population of 2.6 million, that means 127,400 people don’t have a permanent place to live.
Matt O’Brien is a Las Vegas writer who has spent several years investigating the people who live in the city’s storm drains. There are almost 500 kilometres of tunnels beneath the glitz of the Nevada city and they are home to many vagrants. O’Brien wrote about them in his 2007 book, Beneath the Neon.
Trip through Las Vegas Storm Drains
BBC reporter Adam F. Burke took a journey through the Vegas storm drains with O’Brien. In his story, "The Secret World beneath Sin City," (October 3, 2009) Burke describes a place that is home to the down and almost out.
He describes coming upon a widened chamber in the tunnels “where two men are sitting in the glow of candlelight. One of them is slumped on a couch.
“In front of him, on a makeshift coffee table, are a few hypodermic needles. The other man is better groomed, wearing a button-down shirt and a decent pair of trousers.”
The more respectable of the two makes his living cashing in credits that have been left behind by forgetful gamblers. The man describes making a big score of $116 the night before.
City Fathers Tough on Homeless
The sight of so many homeless people doesn’t sit well with the city council of Las Vegas. In July 2006, council passed an ordinance that makes it illegal to provide food to indigents in city parks.
Reporting on the new law, the Las Vegas Review Journal (July 20, 2006) said, “The measure is an attempt to stop so-called ‘mobile soup kitchens’ from operating in parks, where residents say they attract the homeless and render the city facilities unusable by families.”
People Drawn to Vegas in Search of Work
As the recession tightened its grip on America in 2008 Las Vegas charities noticed an increase in people going to the city in hope of finding a job.
Las Vegas Weekly writer Tovin Lapan chronicled this problem (August 21, 2008) and the work of people trying to help. Lapan wrote that “Sin City is perpetually ranked in the Top 10 of the National Coalition for the Homeless’ ‘Meanest Cities’ list, and the city once famously sought to limit people from sleeping within a few feet of excrement (the law was declared unconstitutional by the courts).”
Contrasts of Poverty and Wealth in Las Vegas
Sin City is famous for its excesses. While thousands sleep outside, Matt O’Brien told the BBC gamblers at the Hard Rock Casino are “betting $1,000 per hand in a game of blackjack. And right underneath the Hard Rock is one of the worst Skid Rows I’ve ever seen in my life.”
According to usvetinc.org “Las Vegas has 257 beds available for homeless veterans,” however there are “more than 4,300 homeless veterans in Las Vegas.” Meanwhile, forbestraveler.com reported (October 17, 2006) that “For $25,000 a night, you can sleep in the Palms’ Hardwood Suite, a 10,000 square foot two-level room with a half basketball court, ten-person Jacuzzi, media room, and rotating ‘make out cubby.’ ”
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