Homeless Under Las Vegas: Ways You Can Help

In the flood channels under the streets of Las Vegas exists a troubling world: homeless and unemployed people live in elaborate shelters, struggling to survive, and only yards away from the excess and extravagance of The Strip.

Anderson Cooper 360 reported their story and interviewed Matthew O'Brien, author of Beneath the Neon: Life and Death in the Tunnels of Las Vegas. One of the most intriguing stories is of 43-year-old Steve Dommer, who's been living in the channels for two years.

Dommer, a self-described Las Vegas native, says he ended up underground due to drugs--speed and heroin to be exact. He says drug use not only caused him to lose his construction job but also created what he describes as a "legal situation." Dommer says he's been sober since January.
Two years ago, Dommer created a home about a half-mile from the entrance of a flood channel where some daylight enters through a sealed grate overhead near the Strip. He has a living room, bedroom, kitchen and workshop encompassing about 400-square feet. Everything is elevated inches off of the floor with wooden pallets or milk crates because water from construction hoses above covers the ground. He even painted some of his living area to hide the black soot that covers the walls and ceilings as a result of a fire caused by a one-time tunnel neighbor.

Luckily, the CNN report is more than just a sad story. O'Brien has created the charitable organization Shine A Light, aimed at providing food, blankets and other resources to the people living underneath Las Vegas, along with aid from HELP of Southern Nevada.

A few other ways that ordinary Americans can help:

• Learn how one can most effectively advocate for the homeless. Connecting with other advocates, lobbying elected officials and inspiring media attention can help turn a story into a public call to action.
• The National Coalition For The Homeless is planning a nationwide coat drive campaign called The Big Warm Up. As the winter months approach, it becomes ever more important that the homeless have adequate clothing.
• Las Vegas residents are also being encouraged to volunteer their time or become a mentor to young people who face homelessness.

Comments

[TXfemmom]

There are tons of empty buildings in Las Vegas, just sitting there. Yet this situation occurs? The city should declare buildings which sit empty derelict and take them over and make single room occupancy facilities of them. The individuals who are to reside there could be the source of the labor, and be used to keep the place clean and cook for their residence.

[PressPassTV]

Another way to support the homeless is to check out Street Papers like Spare Change in Boston or Real Change in Seattle. They're a great way to support homeless men and women by supporting their job, but also by reading their perspectives.

[TheBlackCat]

I get spare change every week here in Beantown. It is a great small way to, as they say, "help the homeless help themselves." It's also a pretty good little paper and as you said gives readers a good inside look at issues affecting the homeless and the poor.

[balancedsolution]

It's better to have 7 houses than to have people live in modest apartments.

What a country!

[LiberalBuzz]

No reason for the wealthiest country in the world to have this problem. The rich get richer and richer and richer more poor come to our attention, and the middle class is disappearing.

The ultimate republican dream. A working poor class, the poor, no middle class and the One Percenters who own and control everything and everyone.

[JScott]

Kinda sad and woefully inefficient when you think of all the abandoned/foreclosed homes sitting in LV empty because the banks booted the occupants and then they don't take care of them, when there are plenty of these folks who could use the shelter and take care of the property as well......very simple but sadly not profitable.......kinda says something about the dark side of capitalism.

[SiouxSayer]

Most of you here know my story: 3 months ago I lost my small photo studio due to the economy, my wife whom I cared for through her chemo treatments, decided she wants a new life with my daughters without me, (savings went to Med bills), will be losing my house very soon, and am looking at being homeless after that. I have no formal education as I dedicated my attention to my trade of photography. Not much call for that these days. So, at 41, I am in a very bad place. I could save myself with a job or a path or an opportunity. Right now I am heading down a path that leads to my destruction. I am terrified. I do have IT skills, but no one is hiring men my age. I had dreams, hopes and aspirations...they all seem like a dream now. I live in a very rural part of TN and I would relocate to any area of the world to start over. If anyone can help or advise or offer...I would be most grateful...really. My email is on my profile here. I have no family to take me in or support me and everyone here is the only family I 'have'. I have never asked for help in my life and the shame I feel for seemingly begging here eats at me daily. I used to be strong...Can anyone help?

[Entitlement]

The Faith Based Communities are all that's left of our social welfare system in many parts of the country. Go to a church. Even the churches don't have much, but they still keep their members in the "good fight."

Ask for a hand up, not a hand out. And, don't bite the hand that feeds you! Otherwise, you will run into one of my brothers or sisters.

I rail against the extremists in the Christian or religious world. However, they are also all I have left to help. God bless them all!!!!

[Entitlement]

What, no comments? We are too busy saving our own ...... Suddenly, these worthy causes are tossed aside.

Ironically, the keys to the kingdoms are here. That is the kingdoms of heaven and earth.

Learn to end homelessness and stop managing it, and we take a giant step closer to helping all of us.

If we were so great, so moral, so good as human beings, we would be taking our best and our brightest and sending them to this problem. Instead, we have them creating derivatives. If I could have had at a couple of those million dollar bonuses, I could have pulled people off the streets, positively impacted the emergency room costs, employed social workers, created other employment, made my community safer, saving the in criminal justice system, added to the wellness of my community, felt good that I actually did something and then just DID THE RIGHT THING!

Malcolm Gladwell started the conversation in the New Yorker Magazine on February 13, 2006 in a story entitled "Million Dollar Murray." Ironically we are playing out another version of this at the other end of the economy, with Billion Dollar Berney (Madoff). On either side, what did we get for our money? Malcolm, where are you my genius brother?