https://www.deseret.com/2021/9/24/22689821/light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel-las-vegas-tunnel-system-shine-a-light-paul-vautrinot
The underground city in Las Vegas
For hundreds of people, these tunnels are home. These are America’s forgotten, those left behind in a country with an ever-growing gap between the haves and have nots.
Some are transient — temporary occupants moving in and out every few weeks. But several tunnels have become small, off-the-map communities. There’s no fresh water, and the only electricity comes from batteries, but people have still managed to piece together meager, ersatz apartments inside the industrial-sized, concrete-walled waterways. Some have lived down here for a decade or more. Each occupied tunnel has its own customs and rituals and unofficial leaders.
For those who want help leaving, there is one man who regularly descends into the tunnels. His name is Paul Vautrinot. He knows what the people down here need because the first person he helped out of the tunnels was himself.
And even for those who don’t want to leave, or are afraid to leave, to return to a terrestrial plane that was far more traumatic and harrowing than anything they see down here, Vautrinot still helps. He offers food, water, batteries, clean socks, new flashlights. His philosophy on service is simple: He will help those who need it most, and meet them where they are, judgment free. Today help might mean just surviving, but tomorrow, or a day years from now, it may mean climbing out of the darkness.