Mole people: living in New York's subway tunnels

As you speed through the dark subway tunnels, try to look beyond the reflections and into the caverns which sometimes stretch out from the tunnel. See anything? We’re not talking about alligators flushed down the toilet, but real people who live underground in the nooks and crannies of the subway system. These are the Mole People, made famous by journalist Jennifer Toth, who in 1993 wrote a book describing their plight. The mole people, who by some estimates number 5,000, are considered by New York’s homeless population the most dangerous and unstable of its numbers. They have chosen to live in the countless uncharted crannies of the city’s underground tunnel networks, especially those labyrinths which emanate from Riverside Park, Grand Central Terminal, Penn Station, and Port Authority. Hooking up to wires for electricity has been easy, and the city’s discards provide all the material comforts they need: beds, rugs, lamps, paintings, even pets. Only running water is lacking, and so the mole people are encrusted in dirt and grime, blackened and blending in with the darkness. Sometimes, a mole person is killed by a train, or touches the electric third rail---that’s when their head, feet, and hands explode. Police sweeps through the small encampments try to force the subway dwellers into accepting social services, but many resist: At least in their tunnel spaces, they can set up a relatively permanent home, and even avoid much of the crime that homeless people on the outside suffer. To the mole people, the tunnels underneath New York aren’t much, but they are home.