8 communities that Live Underground
#8: Mole People of New York City.
Underneath the bright lights and bustle of the city that never sleeps, are entire communities
of people known as mole people, a term used to refer to those who live in abandoned subways
or sewage tunnels under large cities.
They live right underneath our footsteps in popular areas, and we don t even know that
they re there.
Depending on where you are, living in New York can be dangerous enough, even aboveground,
but once surrounded by the darkness of the tunnels, the mole people have to be extra
cautious of criminals, that use the lack of light to their advantage, to steal their belongings
or physically attack them.
They re also surrounded by trash, debris, and other objects that could be hazardous.
They even have to worry about disease-carrying reptiles and rodents that sneak around among
them.
Due to circumstances like poverty or drug and alcohol abuse, many people don t have
anywhere else to go, and do what they can to find a place to survive, which is how they
end up in the tunnels.
They form communities, and many of them look after each other.
They do their best to stay concealed in the darkness during the day, and will venture
from their homes at night to collect supplies they may need.
They do this purely to avoid any possible contact with transit authority personnel or
police officers, who would surely evict them from the tunnels if they are seen.
#7 : The Coober Pedy Community in Australia.
They live in the most remote part of the country, in the Outback, where the nearest city is
an 8-hour drive away.
Coober Pedy is a mining town, where they produce the majority of the world s opal.
It is the only legally established underground town in the world.
You may be wondering: Why?
Why choose to live underground if you don t have to?
Well, the only factor that really drove the residents to do so, is the heat.
Temperatures in the middle of the Australian desert, can reach as high as 125 degrees Fahrenheit,
and this prompted the residents to move their homes, churches, shops, bars, museum, and
hotel underground.
About 2,500 people live in the community today, in the over 1,500 homes found between 8 to
22 feet below the ground.
Each home is fully equipped with everything you d find in a home aboveground, except for
the bathroom.
Since there isn t an underground sewage system, the bathrooms are found above ground right
by the front door of the homes.
Despite being underground and in the middle of a desert, Coober Pedy residents use technology
just like the rest of us.
They utilize Wi-Fi hotspots to stay connected to the internet, and satellites have been
installed by Australia s national broadband network.
And their renewable energy plant, harnesses 70% of the town s energy through sun and wind.
#6: The Rat Tribe of China.
In Chinese, they are known as shuzu, and they make up to 5 percent of people living beneath
the city of Beijing in basement air raid shelters.
It may be difficult to imagine up to one million people calling the underground their home,
but it is a reality for them.
Many of them are young, energetic people that came to Beijing from their villages and small
towns around the country, to find a more promising future in the country s capital.
That being said, they arrive not being able to afford a place to stay aboveground, which
can be double the price of the rent for rooms underground.
Living conditions underground are not the best there are many sanitary problems.
In fact, in one case it was reported that people across 80 rooms (which oftentimes have
two people living in them) had access to just one toilet.
Each room is about 100 square feet and costs about 400 yuan (or roughly $60 USD) per month.
Nowadays, the Chinese government has deemed these underground rooms illegal, but nobody
ever seems to enforce this law...Welcome to China.
#5 The Homeless in Bogota s Sewers.
Imagine being born in a place surrounded by poverty, crime, and drug addiction, and on
top of that, being hunted and murdered for being seen as a nuisance to society.
That s what the homeless people of Bogota, Colombia, have to face.
In the 1990 s, death squads were formed, made up of former soldiers and police officers,
that killed the homeless people on the streets.
Once this began to happen, the homeless found refuge by moving their lives underground in
the sewers, and have been there ever since.
Many of them are children who were born on the streets and had to quickly adapt to living
in darkness and the horrible smell of feces.
A lot of the time they trudge through waist-high, feces-filled water surrounded by rats and
garbage.
However, many of them seem to feel safer being hidden away from the harsh judgements of society.
But just because sometimes it feels safer, doesn t mean it actually is.
Many of the children living underground are preyed upon by older homeless people that
also seek refuge in the sewers.
And the death squads are known to pour gasoline into the sewers to set them on fire in an
attempt to socially cleanse Bogota.
Reports show that between the years of 1988 and 1993, two-thousand homeless people were
murdered.
Nowadays, around 345 of them are killed each year.
#4: The Tunnel People of Las Vegas.
There is more than meets the eye in Las Vegas.
Storm drain tunnels were built in the 1990 s, and many homeless people called it home
shortly thereafter.
You may not realize it, but as you walk along the Las Vegas Strip, you re walking right
above many peoples homes.
Nobody knew this until 2002, when a murderer by the name of Timmy Weber made his way into
the tunnel in an attempt to hide from the police for killing his girlfriend and one
of their children.
During his capture, it was discovered.
Many who find refuge in the tunnels suffer from mental illness, physical ailments, or
other difficult situations.
Some find their way to the tunnels after being refused entry into shelters for being too
high or intoxicated to be admitted, or got to the shelter too late to find any bed spaces
available.
They take a risk living in these storm drains, because the tunnels flood after heavy downpours.
Luckily, rainfall isn t common in Las Vegas, but the risk is always there.
#3: Syrians Escaping Air Strikes.
Many Syrians have resorted to living underground during their civil war, especially when their
towns are being attacked.
These underground shelters are a hazard they are oftentimes overcrowded with poor ventilation.
Mold grows on the walls that causes respiratory problems, and there is no proper sanitation.
They have to cope without water or electricity.
But when you compare that with the possibility of being killed as your home is destroyed
during a strike, there is no other choice but to go underground.
While ideally this is temporary, many Syrians don t know when it ll be safe enough to return
home, or find a new one if theirs has been destroyed.
In the case of the Darra family, they fled their home in Idlib when the government launched
a deadly attack on their region.
They managed to escape to a nearby village, but after staying in a mosque for two days
searching for another option, they couldn t find one.
They found an underground bunker and seized the opportunity to move in.
The Darra family consists of four brothers, each of them married, and with twelve kids
between them.
They all live in one room in the bunker.
The uncertainty of the situation is difficult, along with the humidity, sick children, and
having to keep an eye out for scorpions and snakes, that can make a bad situation a whole
lot worse.
#2: The Underground Migrant Town in Moscow and Orphans Who Live in Moscow s Sewers.
Moscow police discovered that 110 people were living underneath a factory that made needles,
blades, and safety pins in 2011.
The underground space was originally a bomb shelter that was then turned into living quarters
for these people, who were illegal migrant workers working at the factory.
In another case, underneath the Moscow market, 200 migrant workers were found in what was
called the secret underground town, although it wasn t as glamorous as it sounds.
They found a factory with sewing machines, living quarters, a cafe, a cinema, and a chicken
coop.
They lived there to maintain being undetected by authorities, and to continue working under
the table.
It isn t just migrants in Moscow who find a way to survive underground.
Many of Moscow s homeless citizens, particularly children, make their way into the sewers of
the city, to escape freezing temperatures that drop below zero during the winter.
In 2002, it was reported that about 50,000 children were living on the streets and in
the sewers, and it s only gotten worse.
Nowadays it s estimated that around 100,000 children are fending for themselves, living
beneath the surface in sewers and on the streets.
Many survive by stealing, begging, or turning to prostitution.
Many of these children escaped from the terrible conditions of orphanages so terrible that
they prefer living in sewers.
How do so many children end up in this situation in Moscow?
Many parents abandon their children because they simply can t afford to take care of them.
In other cases, children run away from home due to neglect or abuse.
Either way, these children have had to find a way to survive, and living underground is
one of the ways they do it.
#1: The Orphans of Bucharest, Romania.
Hundreds of people call the sewers of Bucharest their home, many of which are orphans who
found their way there as children when the government closed orphanages in 1989.
They had to get used to horrible conditions, like living amongst garbage and filth.
Many of them either sleep on the hard ground or rotting clothes, since they don t have
mattresses.
They scavenge for food in trash cans, and many turn to drugs to escape the reality of
their situation.
Within this community, there seems to be a hierarchy.
One man, referred to as the King of the Sewers, is followed around by a pack of dogs, and
makes the final decision as to who can move into the sewers and join their community.
Despite their best efforts, police can t seem to keep this community out of the sewers they
have tried several times to seal the entrances, but the community always finds their way back
inside.
Would you rather live underground for 1 year or spend 3 months in jail?