The Tunnel: The Underground Homeless of NYC

When I was growing up, I have heard many special quotes and sayings. One saying that always stayed on my mind was “Home is where the heart is”. This quote means different things for different people especially to the homeless people of New York City. In Margaret Morton’s book, The Tunnel, the people of the Amtrak Tunnel came together to tell their tales of their lives before and during the tunnel. As it seemed that one man, Bernard, brought most of these people together, the lives in the tunnel showed how the diversity of people with this much amount of space given can bring people together to make them a different kind of community.

Bernard has lived in the tunnel for about ten years. He talks about how he came to the tunnel and how he survives. He finds food in the dumpster and sometimes he would go out to D’Agostino’s to get some grapes. Apparently he is an amazing cook, so he cooks for Larry (another man of the tunnel) and himself. He goes on to tell many other small stories about his times in the tunnel and his times of the past. After Bernard’s story, many others start to fall into place. Bob treats the tunnel as a place where he was able to rethink his life and find out who he is. This is because the tunnel allows these people to create space for themselves. They are able to build their own “homes” and decorate the inside of them. All is not safe in the city for some of the residence. People like Manny, who has had a troubled past, has only one friend, Bernard, in the tunnel. He feels safe in the tunnel because it not many people want to go into the scary dark place.

As the author gets deeper into the tunnel, we see more people with even more stories to tell. We even get to see our first woman, Ria, as she has not lived in the tunnel forever but she when she poked her head through a hole in the wall, she would discover the tunnel. She still does drugs and other things but she does not care because the tunnel allows her to be feel free and have no bills. Another woman that lives in the tunnel is Cathy. Cathy is married to another man of the tunnel (Joe) and ever since they got married she has been living down there. She talks about how she does not want to have children because they live in the tunnel. She claims that the tunnels stops her for wanting to have children.

As the journey comes to an end in the tunnel, it seems that the people in the south gate has more money. David actually has a job at a flower shop. However he still lives in the tunnel because it is still not enough. He also is one of the only ones who goes out and pays for food at a restaurant. Jose seems to be pretty “wealthy” to be living in the tunnel. He still gets welfare checks so he is able to buy food all of the time. Also, in my opinion, he has the best “homes” in the tunnel. It is fully decorated and seems to be a decent place to live.

Throughout the journey of the tunnel, readers meet many people. There are all different types of personalities that are in there. However, the one thing that they have in common is that, according to Bob, “The tunnel’s a good place if you want to find out who you are. But when you do find out who you are, you have to move out or the tunnel will eat you up…” (37).

Cited Sources

MORTON, MARGARET. The Tunnel : The Underground Homeless Of New York City. n.p.: New Haven : Yale University Press, c1995

Photos: http://lens-views.com/Index/Dark_Days.html

http://www.amazon.com/The-Tunnel-Underground-Homeless-Architecture/dp/0300065590

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *