Couple Lives in Flood Tunnels Under Las Vegas

If not for the ominous plastic crates that Steven and Kathryn’s bed and dresser are propped high up on, the couple’s home would look like a dingy basement apartment. But those crates speak volumes, as they are there to protect the pair’s belongings from water — a constant threat when you live in an underground flood tunnel.

Luckily, it hardly ever rains in Las Vegas. In fact, over their two years of living deep in the bowels of Sin City, Steven and Kathryn have been able to stay dry enough to fashion their unusual dwelling with a makeshift kitchen and even a shower made from an office drinking-water dispenser.

They aren’t alone in making their home underground. Roughly 700 people live in the flood tunnels beneath Vegas, with the majority concentrated under the strip. They’ve formed a community, united by a collection of graffiti drawn by resident artists that they call their art gallery, and a fear of flooding, which has killed 20 underground dwellers over the last two decades.

Black widow spiders thrive in the darkness, and mosquitoes swarm in the damp. But it still beats being homeless above ground. “It’s much cooler than on the streets,” one resident explained. “We get a breeze coming through and the cops don’t really bother you. It’s quiet, and everyone helps each other out down here.”

For “work,” Steven and Kathryn put on their best clothes and emerge up into the casinos’ neon glow, where they “credit hustle.” This vocation consists of checking slot machines for the chips and credits drunken gamblers leave behind. 997 dollars is the most Steven ever found in a single machine. Most nights, 20 bucks will do.

Many of the drain-pipe dwellers have drug and alcohol problems. Heroin was Steven’s thing. He claims he’s kicked, but two outstanding warrants from his bad old days have him leery of returning to the normal life and sunlight that he craves.

So he’ll remain beneath the margins, with his woman and his surprisingly well-appointed sewer suite. Proof that, for some, being underground is more than a state of mind.

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