Inside the dark and dangerous sewer homes made by vagrants in the drainage tunnels beneath the glitz of Las Vegas



Beneath the gaudy, blinding lights of Sin City, where the famous Las Vegas Strip never goes dark, untold number of homeless people have taken of residence in the sewer tunnels, where the sun never shines.



Las Vegas attracts high-rollings gamblers, big spending tourists and the biggest names in music and Hollywood - but it also has the highest foreclosure rate in the nation and fourth-highest rate of homelessness.



The dank tunnels are dangerous. Every time it rains in the city above, the draining water causes flash floods in the sewers below - washing away everything the subterranean residents have accumulated. Anyone in the tunnels can be carried away, too.

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Survival: Richard Ethridge, 39, and Cynthia Goodwin, 46, have been married for 12 years and have been living in the tunnels beneath Las Vegas to two years

Dark: Little natural light gets into the tunnels, so they are almost always dark - despite the unending bright lights of Sin City above

Welcome: Ms Goodwin walks past a sign that welcomes visitors and residents to the tunnel world

On average, one homeless person drowns in the tunnel each year.

However, rain is infrequent in desert Las Vegas and so the homeless continue to flock to the tunnels.



The Toronto Globe and Mail reports that many of the residents of the tunnels feel that they have nowhere else to go. The city has an estimated 12,000 homeless; it is unknown how many live in the tunnels.



The incredible images of the world of the tunnels were captured by photographer Mona Shield Payne .



The collapse of the housing market resulted in tens of thousands of families losing their homes. Even before that, Las Vegas has developed a reputation for being one of the most unfriendly to the homeless in the country, the newspaper reports.



A city ordinance prohibits anyone from giving food to 'vagrants' in public parks, according to the newspaper.

Making a life: Ms Goodwin and her husband Mr Ethridge have had to give up on making lives in the world above. They now focus on surviving in the tunnels below

Temporary: The residents of the tunnels know that everything they own could be washed out by a flash rush of sewer water at any time

Richard Ethridge and Cynthia Goodwin, who have been married 12 years, recall a day when a rush of water came through the tunnel where they made a home.

The furniture they had collected, their bed, and all the rest of their possessions were swept away in a moment.

Ms Goodwin, too, was caught up in the torrent, and nearly carried off and drowned herself.



'I almost lost her,' Mr Ethridge, 39, told the newspaper. 'She was in another tunnel holding on to her bike. The water was so strong it ripped the front tire off the bike.'

Ms Goodwin, 46, says she works from time-to-time as a housekeeper - but living in the tunnels makes it difficult to return to normal life.

'It’s hard to get a job when you’ve got no address. We can give them a cell number, but you don’t get reception down here,' she said.

Sleeping rough: John Aitcheson, 53, made his home in a drainage tunnel on the west side of Las Vegas

VIDEO Homeless people living in tunnels under the streets of Vegas

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