Up to 1,500 ‘Tunnel People’ Displaced by $15 Million Las Vegas Flood Channel Upgrade

Posted on: July 1, 2025, 11:21h. 

Last updated on: July 1, 2025, 12:43h.

Corey Levitan Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas, Restaurants, Vegas Myths Busted.
  • As many as 1,500 unhoused people residing underneath Las Vegas have been removed from the flood channels they make their homes in
  • Their removal is part of a yearlong upgrade of what locals refer to as “the tunnels”
  • Nearby residents are complaining about an increased homeless presence in their communities

An unhoused population believed to number up to 1,500 has been ejected from the tunnels beneath Las Vegas. The eviction comes as Clark County begins a yearlong, $15 million regional flood control project to overhaul the flood channels used by this population as lodging.

The tunnels are part of a 600-mile system of flood channels begun in the late ’70s to redirect storm water underneath the Strip and its surrounding communities. (Image: thetravel.com)

When the Flamingo Wash flood channel emerges from the upgrade in about a year, it will have been cleared of all debris and rocks, and feature lateral drain connections and additional fencing (apparently to thwart re-entrance by the unhoused).

Tunnel resident Jay says he ended up living in the tunnels after a near-fatal shooting left him blind in one eye and without a home or ID. (Image: YouTube/Brandon Buckingham)

Though HELP of Southern Nevada placed teams at the site to help the homeless find shelter and meet other needs, most of them shun shelters because of mental health and substance abuse issues – and also because shelters forbid them from living with their spouses and/or pets.

That’s according to Shine a Light, a 501(c)3 nonprofit formed to try to help those wanting to return to society and to care for those who don’t.

Those who add to Las Vegas’ aboveground homeless population become a nuisance to the residents and businesses surrounding the tunnel entrances.

“I’ve had my house broken into,” resident Brenda Wilda said during a public forum held Monday evening at the Clark County Library, as reported by KLAS-TV/Las Vegas. “I’ve walked out front and had a man fully exposed in front of my house. I was on hold [with police] for three hours.

“Every time they clean out the wash, there’s more crime in our neighborhood,” she said.

What the Tunnels Were Meant  to Do

This map shows the locations of current and future flood channels all around Las Vegas. (Image: Las Vegas Regional Flood Control District)

The tunnels are part of a 600-mile system of flood channels begun in the late ’70s to redirect storm water underneath the Strip and its surrounding communities

They also turn out to be an ideal shelter from the unrelenting summer heat for unhoused people, and from the police officers who break up homeless encampments on the streets above.

Until it rains. Then they become death traps.

At least once a year — sometimes several — bodies are washed through the tunnels toward Lake Mead by the runoff from surprise rainstorms in the mountains west of town.

At the meeting on Monday, Clark County Commissioner Tick Segerblom told residents that the problem “did not happen overnight (and) it’s not going to go away overnight,”

“The truth is, there were a ton of people in there that are not in there,” he said. “So where do they go?”