Vegas Circle

From Vegas Tunnels to The Stage: Rob Banghart’s Journey from Addiction to Inspiration

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What does it mean to lose everything and find your way back? Rob Banghart's journey from addiction to redemption takes us through the darkest corners of Las Vegas—literally beneath the glittering city where few tourists ever venture.

Rob shares his raw, unflinching story of how alcoholism and addiction led him from working in prestigious restaurants under Wolfgang Puck to living in the vast tunnel system beneath Las Vegas. For five years, homelessness was his reality, with two and a half of those years spent in what he calls "a physical representation of a mental state"—the darkness of the tunnels mirroring his internal struggles. The details are haunting: tunnel hierarchies, survival tactics, and the moment-to-moment existence of addiction.

The turning point came through violence and near-death. After being attacked, left for dead on train tracks, and experiencing multiple clinical deaths, Rob found an unexpected spiritual awakening that catalyzed his recovery. What followed was not just personal healing but a calling to return to those same tunnels—this time as an outreach worker with Shine a Light Foundation.

Now as VP of Communication Integration, Rob leads teams into the tunnels every Saturday, offering not just supplies but genuine human connection. He explains the foundation's innovative iPath program that provides an 18-month continuous support system for those ready to leave homelessness behind. His perspective challenges our assumptions: "70% of Americans live one critical incident away from homelessness," he notes, reminding us this crisis touches every demographic.

Rob's most powerful message comes wrapped in humility: "The bravest thing I ever did was ask for help." His story isn't just about personal redemption but about building community through servant leadership and creating pathways for others to find their way home. Listen and discover how connection, compassion, and continuous support are transforming lives beneath Vegas.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to Vegas Circle Podcast with your hosts, paki and Chris. We are people who are passionate about business, success and culture, and this is our platform to showcase people in our city who are making it happen. Today's guest is just that. I've been following this guy for a while, man. It's just an amazing story, from the Vegas tunnels to leading the change, with the impact with homeless becoming a recovery addict from my understanding, and so let's welcome to the circle. We just want to jump right in my understanding, and so let's welcome to the circle. We just want to jump right in. He's a true voice of impact. Let's welcome to the circle the VP of Communication Integration at Shine a Light Foundation, mr Rob Banghart. Thanks for having me. Welcome, welcome, yeah. So, man, you've been on my radar for a while, man. Where are you originally from, man?

Speaker 2:

You from Vegas or no, I was born in Northern New Jersey.

Speaker 1:

Oh, okay, East Coast yeah.

Speaker 2:

I grew up there until I was about 23, then I came out this way what led you to come to Vegas?

Speaker 2:

I had a long line of alcoholics in my family, you know, and a lot of chaos. But I also had a lot of good support and for me it was just, you know, my addiction. That's just the bottom line, right. I went to prison for a couple years. I got out, and when I got out the last last couple years, my early 20s, it was just like a lot of you know, the cops were pulling me out, all the things right, and they were really trying to help me out though, let's be fair, right, like they were doing their job, as they're supposed to. But they would always try to kind of talk to me and say, hey, listen, like what are you doing? Like we know what you're up to. All that so you know, I can see that now in retrospect. Right at the time I was like, oh man, why don't these?

Speaker 2:

guys leave me alone. You know what I mean. And uh, so I did what we call in recovery a geographical right. I said I'm gonna, it's got to be the town change.

Speaker 2:

You gotta move to a new location, but unfortunately, like anywhere I go there, I am right, like that's me, I was the problem, right and uh. So I came here and I was working in restaurants for a while. I had, uh, I worked for some really nice restaurants. It was kind of the part of my journey where it seemed on the outside like maybe things were okay, like I was working for Wolfgang Puck. I worked for Wolfgang Puck for a couple years and then at the end of that I get a call and it's the chef and he says, hey, wolfgang wants to talk to you. And that's what I heard, right. The reality was he was coming to town to talk to a lot of people. He had a couple restaurants in town, but restaurants in town.

Speaker 2:

But you know, my ego was really out of control at the time. And when the time came to sit down with him, really what he told me was all about my alcoholism, right. He told me about my behaviors, my actions, right, about how I was like wasted talent. You know what I mean Like I was. I was good at what I did, but I was. I was a miserable person, I was. I'd be a little bit late, I don't want to leave early. I was always angry, like all the things, and you know, again somebody trying to help me, right. But in that moment what I heard was why are you picking on me? I mean, you don't understand me, you don't value me, right, like my perception was so often. So I did another geographical and I went to work for Emma Lavasi. So I worked for Emma.

Speaker 1:

Lavasi Heavy hitters, man yeah.

Speaker 2:

It was amazing opportunities, right. And same thing happens there. You know he proceeds to tell me about my alcoholism and my behaviors and, uh, you know I start bouncing around a little bit. I end up working at divination. I was assistant banker chef for a couple years there. The guy that hired me there went down in mississippi for a little while to open a hotel or take over a hotel after katrina. So I went down to run one of the restaurants and at that time it was like National Guard. I mean there's tons of construction workers.

Speaker 2:

Chaos yeah, a lot of chaos going on, yeah, and it was pill mills, so it was like lines outside of the doctor's office for everybody to get their pain medication. So I fell off. I ended up getting fired there, came back home and I spent about two years on MAT medication. I don't know if you're familiar, but what?

Speaker 1:

is that Methadone?

Speaker 2:

Oh, it's an opiate, a tool to use to get off opiates Right, and I I'm a huge proponent of it. It's very successful when you're trying to do it the right way. But I wasn't. I mean, I wasn't even ready to stop yet. So for the next two years all I would do is lay in bed, get up every morning to get my dose maybe army, crawl through my in-laws bedroom to steal some jewelry or money right to get a, maybe something to fix in the middle, right and you were back in jersey at this time, right, oh, no, no, oh, you were back in.

Speaker 1:

Oh, you were vegas okay, vegas, okay, yeah I had been.

Speaker 2:

I had gotten married. I was married. I'm sorry I missed that because I was married for about 10 years.

Speaker 2:

We had a daughter and, uh, so we came back to live with her parents, you know. And then for the next two years, I, you know, she wasn't even sleeping in the same room as me anymore, you know. And eventually she, like, she was a saint, and she kicked me out and eventually, and then I got arrested shortly after that and then when I got out, I had nowhere to go, you know, and I had had some things happen in my life. I, like we all did, I had experiences. You know, my father was an alcoholic. He was abusive, he left very early when I was a kid, you know. But I always had a safe home. My stepfather, who is my dad, who raised me, he earned that title. They were good people. They are good people, right, they gave me a safe home, I had meals, right like so.

Speaker 2:

But for me, I understand, like I was born an addict or an alcoholic, right Like I was born with that mental piece, right Like I was always restless and irritable and discontent. I was always uncomfortable. You ask my mom, she says, oh, you're a happy kid. Yeah, externally I was. I knew how to act, right, like that's it. But internally, like I can remember having suicidal thoughts at like eight nine. You know what I mean. I can remember getting in a whole bunch of trouble. I was very incorrigible, right. I was very like the first drug of choice for me was acting out. It was bad behavior To get the attention.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, the attention, the relief that I got from that. Right, I was always seeking relief my entire life and you know. So I get arrested, I get out, I've got nowhere to go. I go to a place called the Samaritan House it's like a last house on the blocks over living and at the time the manager was a very what's the right word? Very straightforward guy. He said you're going to do this or you're going to get out. And at the time I needed that, you know, and so I did. I did everything they asked me to do. I for me that you know, I have a certain pathway in recovery and I did everything they asked me to do.

Speaker 2:

And but things came back very quickly, you know, very quickly. And uh, I just I just started to think like I, I got this, like I figured it out. Maybe I, maybe I made too big a deal out of this, you know, I mean maybe like this is that big break, because that was always my thing, right, I was always trying to do something right, I was always trying to get over this hump, like if I could just do this, if this would just work out, and really what it was is like I was living off my own ego, right, my own pride. I couldn't. I couldn't just humble myself and accept help and just it was just a lot of chaos. And so, fast forward, I stopped doing all the things they told me to do. And it's about two years later and I got asked to speak at a meeting I have no idea why and I went, went home that night and my head was so loud that I put a needle in my arm and within a month I was homeless. I had remarried, we had a daughter, we had, you know, two cars, apartment, all the things, and it wasn't enough to keep me sober. You know, I was homeless within a month and my homelessness was very progressive, a lot like my addiction.

Speaker 2:

I. You know, at first I was homeless within a month and my homelessness was very progressive, a lot like my addiction. I. You know, at first I was scared. You know, I was very scared. I went out and I didn't know how to hustle out there. I didn't know how to survive. Really, that's really what it comes down to, you know. And so at first I was kind of hanging out with other people and then I went to Catholic Charities for a little bit and I kind of at the time it was before all the services that were down there, it was just Catholic Charities and it was, like you know, 1,000, 1,500 people out there all the time and it was like a jungle. You know, it was just crazy. And when I started to make friends, I started to, you know, learn the procedures and all that, and then I lived on Foremaster for about a year.

Speaker 1:

What's Foremaster?

Speaker 2:

Foremaster is the street that runs right along Catholic charities. Okay, okay, so it's like the heart of it. Yeah, it's tough. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah and you know, I saw all kinds of things right, All kinds of things stabbing, shoot. I mean all of it. It was all out there, and triangle is catholic charity, salvation army and the rescue mission that's right, okay, so catholic charity serves breakfast, salvation army serves lunch and rescue mission serves dinner.

Speaker 2:

So there's this constant kind of like flow of people kind of going throughout the day. So I started to learn, learn this and, you know, get to know some other people. And I said, you know, let me go try over there. So I went over by the uh, the rescue mission, the historical west side, and, uh, I uh was living under the bridge for a while, you know, in that area. And then eventually I was living in a wonderful establishment called the moulin rouge. It's been closed for about 60 years. I was there as they were blowing it up. That's my claim to fame, you know.

Speaker 2:

And I was so lost in my addiction, I'll tell you the story I was. One day I came to my the moulin rouge was like two stories, all these little two stories. And my home was a second floor apartment, well, on the far left. I came home one day and a buddy of mine was outside and he says, hey, this guy tried to break into your place or whatever. And what it was was his apartment was on the bottom right, he had gone upstairs and there was holes through all the walls and he was like smoking crack in my apartment the apartment next to mine and lit some stuff on fire. So he almost burnt the whole thing down. So my response in that moment was to go over there with my buddy, kick his door in and light his apartment on fire.

Speaker 1:

That's how your mindset was at.

Speaker 2:

That's where the insanity is right that, like I, I saw your mind, what your mindset was that.

Speaker 1:

That's where the insanity is right, that, like I'm lighting his thing on fire but you don't realize it can burn the whole building. And it did. Wait a minute, it did burn the building. Yeah, it was vacant building, thankfully.

Speaker 2:

But for the next three days I thought I killed somebody. For the next three days. You know, I'm on a runner, I'm out there and I think for sure I killed somebody. So every car, every helicopter, you know, I mean I'm on one, yeah so, and then finally that passed, thankfully.

Speaker 2:

And then, you know, a little bit, after that, once they were blowing up, blowing it all up, I, another buddy that I knew out there, just said, hey, come with me. And I went with them and uh, not too far from the moulin rouge was, uh, his tunnel, which would become my tunnel. And I remember seeing that tunnel and him introducing it to me and just thinking like and I remember seeing that tunnel and him introducing it to me and just thinking like, finally, you know, and for a lot of different reasons, right, like, first it was a roof, right, it was off the beaten path. You know, when you're homeless in the streets, like you know, the cops are moving you, city, city workers are moving you. It's the randomness of other homeless people, the randomness of people driving by in that area. There was a lot of gangs and different. I mean, it was just like you never knew, you never knew and it gave me that illusion.

Speaker 2:

Right, I always use the analogy, lord of the flies right, it was our island, right, everybody from the outside was kind of suspect very, you were very cautious with and hey, you're not welcome here. But also, internally, there was a lot of chaos too. Right, we're all in different levels of crisis and all this stuff. So I lived in that tunnel for about two and a half years, you know, and it's a very physical representation of a mental state right At that point. I've been an addict for most of my life. The last five years it's like the worst it's ever been, obviously, and but it was a physical representation of that dark spot that I'm in my mind, right, where I'm just completely lost.

Speaker 2:

And I was living in the same city as you, but not in the same society. So I saw you, but you, like, it was like you were. You were flying a hundred feet higher than me. You know what I mean. We weren't in the same place and, uh, you know my hustle when I was out there was like real basic stuff. You know what I mean Basic crimes of opportunity like stealing, you know what I mean, and dumpster diving, and the last day that I was out there.

Speaker 2:

I was out dumpster diving and there must have been an eviction and I found a suitcase and the suitcase had a whole bunch of jewelry and electronics and all these different things. And I thought, oh my God, I hit the mother load right. So I throw it on my bike and I pedal back and I get to my neighborhood and at that time the Cubans ran that area. They had all the dope, so I would always go to them and like give them something if I found something right, because they were always watching out for me, because I was always up to something stupid and I think I flashed too much because it was daylight.

Speaker 2:

I don't know what happened and I think I flashed too much because it was daylight. I don't know what happened, but I went back to my tunnel and along my tunnel was the train tracks that cut through the middle of the city. So I went down the train tracks and there's just four businesses, and the fourth business was the guy that I would go to and trade stuff for dope, for money, whatever, and because it was so much, he's like come back in an hour. I don't know if he was setting me up hour. I don't know if he was setting me up, I have no idea, right, but I said, okay, I left, went and got high, came back an hour later it's dark now and uh, there's three guys waiting for me.

Speaker 2:

There were other homeless guys that I knew and uh, we kind of had the same hustles. There was like some animosity between us, but whatever, right, nothing, no big deal. And uh, but like the truest definition of what I am as an addict is that one had a pipe, one had a knife, one had a hatchet and on the other side of them is what I needed to get my next fix right. I'm not a brave guy by nature. I'm not like some tough guy. I don't care about any of that stuff. I just want to be happy and healthy and all that stuff.

Speaker 2:

But in that moment they were what stood between me and getting my next fix. So I had to go right. Like inside my head I was like I knew exactly. I was walking, you know, working through the scenario in my head. My feet were already going, you know, and they hit me in the head with a hatchet a couple of times, the pipe, the knife. They stabbed me in the leg, they broke my jaw, they lacerated my liver, they dragged me onto the train tracks and they left me for dead and I died on those train tracks.

Speaker 2:

But what I didn't know was in the first business there was an overnight security guard that I had made friends with over the years passing through and I had no idea he was there that night. But he was there and he had called the ambulance, called the police and all that. They came, pulled me off the train tracks and revived me. So when I wake up I've got a knife sticking out of my leg. I still think I'm fighting for my life. I got blood all over me. You know, my jaws were all the things and uh, they're trying to help me. I think I'm fighting for my life.

Speaker 2:

Fight the same people, yeah, yeah 100 and the train's coming, so it's loud. I mean it's just like sensory overload. And then, uh, they hit me with another shot of morphine. I died again, and then I woke up in the hospital three days later in life support. When I woke up three days later, I still thought I was fighting for my life.

Speaker 2:

This nurse was like trying to calm me down, right, and I think she hit the morphine button again. And then I felt a hand touch my forehead and I heard the words calm down and I felt the overwhelming presence of what I choose to call my God. It was just so peaceful and so beautiful and I spent the next whatever it was a couple days in life support and then eventually they transitioned me into a hospital for physical rehabilitation. I had been hit so many times in the head that the swelling of my brain, they couldn't wire my jaw shut. So my equilibrium was off, my memory was off.

Speaker 2:

You would ask me a question, I would answer it three minutes later and to me it was in real time. I would stand up and just fall over, but I couldn't tell I was falling over, if that makes sense, and tons of acid reflux, you know staples, stitches, a massive headache for the first three months of my journey and this ringing that sounded like the train was like in the center of my brain for the first three months. I got so many questions.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, that's a wild story, man.

Speaker 1:

How long total were you homeless? About five years? About five years, yeah. And so how did you so? You said your friend. I want to back up and talk about the tunnels. I know that's a big piece of your story, what you help with right now. You weren't scared to go to these tunnels and everything, because that's a serious scenario. From what I'm understanding, I know you know more than I do, but to go to a tunnel and be in that area, like what would make you want to do that?

Speaker 2:

I mean, you got to remember. It wasn't like I woke up one day. I was sitting on my couch petting my cats and I said let's go to the tunnels.

Speaker 2:

There was a progression there over time and like I had lost hope. You know the the last year that I was out there every day I woke up. I was mad that I woke up. I wanted it to end Like, and as it goes back to, I didn't value myself. I didn't value myself as a kid. You know now, you know I'm 40, I think I was 41, 42. You know what I mean. Like I thought, like this is just who I'm going to be for the rest of my life. This is how I was meant to be. Like so much anger, resentment, guilt and shame, and like I'm addicted, like I'm going to go wherever the dope is. You know what I mean?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and how long, like during that process that you're going through this, that it becomes normal, like it starts to feel normal Because obviously you mentioned when I first went there, you'd have a certain sense of like this is different. But then at what point do you start to feel comfortable in your home right? You start to feel comfortable in this area where it becomes more consistent.

Speaker 2:

It took a little little time. You know what I mean. I think, obviously, being on drugs, I was running all over the place and I was meeting people and just you know, I just inserted myself. You know it's. It's almost funny, if you know, if it wasn't so tragic out there. But like a lot of the tools that I use out there I use today, you know what I mean networking that type of stuff. Yeah, you know meeting people, like, just so moving around, always, always going yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So I don't know if that's a trauma response or something, I don't know, but like there's a lot of similarities, you know, but it's probably probably six months, honestly until I felt like I had a handle on it Like I was doing. I was okay, like I didn't need other people around me. You know what I mean. Like I in Like in the beginning I kind of stayed around people and like learned and watched like you would with anything else.

Speaker 1:

Sure, yeah, I guess let's say, with the tunnels right, there's 15 to 2,000 people underneath.

Speaker 2:

So I think the number we're comfortable with is like 1,200 to 1,500.

Speaker 3:

So in that ballpark oh, I know that Every night, like every night I mean you got to remember there's 600 miles of tunnels in Las Vegas.

Speaker 2:

So like 600 miles. If I showed you the map you'd be like, wow, there's a lot. You know what I mean. And they're long and all of them have their own personality. All of them are. You know, the tunnels on the historical west side don't look the same to me as the tunnels over by South Point.

Speaker 1:

A lot of similarities right, yeah, yeah, yeah but there's some differences in like even my tunnel was.

Speaker 2:

You know, when I first started, there was I don't want to say hierarchy, but there was like somebody who was kind of in charge. You know what I mean? That's some real basic rules, right. And then what would those rules be? Oh, like, in my tunnel, you couldn't, I couldn't do heroin. Like heroin is my drug of choice. I couldn't do heroin in my tunnel. Everybody there did meth and that's because that's what he right got it. But I would have to disappear for a couple days when I got an itch and go do it and come back. But can't steal from each other. I mean, I don't know, a lot of that stuff wasn't superly enforced. It was really like, no, outsiders, don't bring trouble here. You know, don't bring attention here. Where my tunnel was was not, it was not very visible, like you couldn't see it from the street. You had to know where it was and you couldn't get into it. Like it wasn't like a tunnel you could just walk up to.

Speaker 2:

Like I never saw a single service ever come to my tunnel in two and a half years that I was there.

Speaker 3:

That's my next question. They don't patrol the tunnels like the tunnels from the outside, from the police department or anybody.

Speaker 2:

It's kind of go in if they have special need.

Speaker 3:

You know what I mean?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, like that's what's going on right now with the. I don't know if you've seen it down in Cambridge what they're doing with the paving it over, blocking it off. They cleared it all out because there's a lot of crime.

Speaker 1:

Got it, yeah, cambridge, I'm thinking like Flamingo, Palos Verdes, that area, Okay, okay okay, so one of the things that I was going to ask is 5,000 degrees outside. Yeah, how can people remain over years dealing with the heat in vegas? Man, like, how do you go through that for five years in a city like las vegas when it's so hot? Yeah?

Speaker 2:

I think whenever anybody ever asked me that question, I asked, I asked them to think about something in their life that they never thought they'd be doing, but they're doing today. It doesn't have to be bad, it'd be good, good.

Speaker 1:

I like how you flipped that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, because that's just human nature. You know what I mean you just get you, just do it.

Speaker 1:

You got to get through it.

Speaker 2:

We're resilient by nature, like I have to, you know. I mean I think there was some tricks that like we weren't moving around a lot during the day if we didn't have to. You know it's more nighttime activity, right, and uh, the tunnel's a little bit cooler, not much, but a little bit cooler and a little bit warmer in the winter. In the tunnel you're not getting that direct sunlight, which is the killer, right good point, yeah, windy days, cold windy days. You're not getting that direct cold wind. You know what I mean. So you know you start, just like anybody, right? Like you, you start to learn your environment. You start to learn what you can make those adjustments.

Speaker 1:

Yep, yeah, yep. What about just like the misunderstanding right? Like there's people every day that are going homeless. You don't know, they might be business guy, gambler, whatever. What do you think is like the biggest misunderstanding for, for people that are homeless today?

Speaker 2:

So I think the the issue is that we don't even understand homelessness, first and foremost, right. If you have an issue, you have to get deep and understand it, right. So what does it mean to be homeless, right? If it? What I know homeless to be is your name's not on the lease. That means if you have an adult child living in your house, that's not not going to school. They're homeless by, by definition, family members. They're homeless by nature, almost by definition. Apologize, but so the issue is much larger than we give it Then we we even understand it right now. On top of that, anywhere from six to seven out of 10 Americans live one critical incident away from being homeless. You said six, six out of seven, six to seven out of 10, depending on the fluctuation, I believe that, yeah, one critical incident.

Speaker 2:

away from being homeless, you can definitely see that.

Speaker 1:

It doesn't take a whole lot 70%.

Speaker 2:

COVID affected how many people in our country? By a percentage? 20?, maybe 30?, 70% Shut the entire country down.

Speaker 3:

I think you say one thing, like you said something that registered me. It was like my neighborhood, like I'm going to my neighborhood. So when you're saying that it doesn't feel like you're homeless, right In that moment that's how you, how I interpreted it right Like when you're in that moment, do you feel like that's the case for a lot of people that are living in that environment? Like I don't feel like that. This is my home, this is my neighborhood.

Speaker 2:

It becomes your home and it's again your room. When you remove hope very small right, like I I step into recovery and my world gets very big. You know what I mean? Is that any different than their world? It's the same, right? That's their world. So, yeah, it's just changing our perception, right? These are these people live in our city. These people are our brothers and sisters and our people.

Speaker 2:

That's what I love what you're saying yeah, one of my best stories is that it hits home. For me is because it hit home so close to my home. Right, we all have that gas station that we go to right when we're going to work. Whatever, it is right get our drinks?

Speaker 2:

yeah, well, I have one. And there's always this guy out there and I see him all the time and he's asked me for money. I don't give out money, it's just not my thing. I'm not telling anybody else what to do, it's just not my thing. But I always make sure hey you want to drink, hey, you want to go get some food? I'll take you inside. Never, never bites. Right. The last time I went there, maybe like three months ago, four months ago, he bites, comes inside and I had one of the most beautiful interactions I've had with a human being. Like we were laughing, joking. It was like I was in there with my best friend, giddy. I mean, he was even like talking a little shit to me.

Speaker 1:

You know what I mean. It was good. You know what I mean.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, sorry Get him everything he needs.

Speaker 2:

And then I go to the register, I buy him a pack of cigarettes, I take the bag, I hand it to him. He starts to walk towards the door and I turn around to finish up what I was doing and he starts yelling and he runs out of the door and the guy behind the register starts like giggling. He's like why'd you do that? And I was like I don't want to live in a society where that man has probably not had a conscious interaction with a human being, just that cared enough about him to make contact and make him feel seen and heard, that he is so uncomfortable with it, like the narrative. And our responsibility is to go the other way, to make it so that they're not so separate from us, to make them feel a part of, regardless of where they're at. You know what I mean Homelessness is in our city. It's's in every city, but it's in our city. How do we, how do we address those issues? Not by separating, not by treating them differently, by treating them the same do we have the?

Speaker 1:

I didn't look up the number do we have the largest in vegas?

Speaker 3:

it's got to be really high right, it's high, it's high, it has to be probably like a New York or San Francisco.

Speaker 1:

Just because of a bigger market, bigger market, cost of living is way higher.

Speaker 2:

LA, LA. I bet you by percentage. You know what I mean.

Speaker 1:

I'm sure it's probably up there Like I was reading about Finland. Have you heard about Finland? It's like they're like near, like almost zero what they've been able to do. Do you think that's something that we can do in Vegas? I mean, or just let's just say Vegas, maybe not United States, but just Vegas in general you think that's something we could do?

Speaker 1:

Because I know there's a lot of pots there's a lot of layers to this that we can go, but I'm just curious what your perspective is, because everybody speaks a philosophy in there, but you've lived it and you deal with this and really help do it. But what, like? I guess what I'm getting at is like what can we do? You know what I mean Is there? Is there something that we can really do to really make a change, like a Finland? Yeah, there's.

Speaker 2:

You know, I believe in the work that we do obviously.

Speaker 1:

I think we're making a big difference.

Speaker 2:

I think that there's some some things going on around.

Speaker 1:

And I know it's not cut and dry. By the way, and I know you know what I'm saying there's a lot of layers to this, but yeah.

Speaker 2:

I think that it's first and foremost as a community we got to come together, right like this is a community issue that we all need to address together. Yep, it can't be just this or just that, and I think that's kind of the issue, like that's really what I like about you know, with shine, what we did is how we connected the community, right like that's why it was so important to us. Right like connecting all these pieces, because when we started creating ipath and working through our, why it was so important to us. Right Like connecting all these pieces because when we started creating iPath and working through our program, it was like all the pieces are already here. They're just not working together.

Speaker 1:

Stay there for a second. So for our listeners that don't what is Shine, the Light Foundation? Like, what exactly do you guys do? Like how did it come together in the whole nine?

Speaker 2:

Okay, so Shine the Light was founded by a gentleman named Matt O'Brien. He was an author. He was writing a book about a gentleman named TJ Weber. This was a long time ago. Tj Weber had killed his family and escaped the dragnet through the tunnels In Vegas obviously In Vegas, yeah.

Speaker 2:

He goes into the tunnels as part of his story, meets our friends, starts to build relationships with them he was shining a light on the issue of their fact that there was people there and what's going on? I follow you now and then fast forward. He's writing a second book in, like 2016, 17. And he interviews our director, paul, and then after two weeks, he goes I'm leaving. I'm going to El Salvador. Do you want this? And at the time, paul is working with one of our dear friends and mentors, jeff Iverson. They are. Jeff owns Freedom House.

Speaker 1:

Jeff sounds very familiar.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, Okay, and then Paul is running Freedom House. So Paul goes to him and says, listen, I want to do this and I want to create something, but I want to be able to actually do something when they reach out for help. I want to be able to stay with them. I don't want to just pick them up and drop them off somewhere and good luck, I hope it works out. You know what I mean. So he started to formulate what is ipath, which is instant placement with access to treatment and housing. So we deal with substance use disorder, which is the main driver, right. A lot of other things are secondary and third, but substance yeah.

Speaker 2:

So that's the instant placement they call. We're there within an hour. That's our goal, that's that window of time is fleeting, right, the willingness. So we send them to a triage detox where they're clinically and medically assessed, from there to go to detox three to five days while in detox. I'm a visual learner, so the triangle is engaged One points to participant, one point's our case manager and one point is that whatever facility they're at, whatever level of care they're at, that representative or case manager. So there's always a triangle working. So if they're in detox and they call us and they say hey, listen, the food really sucks here, I can go listen, buddy, that ain't your problem today.

Speaker 1:

You're trying to get clean. Yeah, you know what I?

Speaker 2:

mean, but then vice versa if there is a problem, we can go call and talk and intrinsically we're both working together to help the participant to the next step. And then from there they can go into either residential treatment or housing with treatment Treatment is always a part of the programming or to deal with the underlying issues. Housing is a PHP, iop, op, case management, all your vital documents. Residential is the same exact thing but in a more constrained environment. And then from there into sober living where we pay for the first three months. Our program is 18 months long, so that's 18 months we're going to be with you, 18 months we're going to walk with you.

Speaker 1:

That's a long time. That's almost two years. Yeah, that's a long time. I realize that's not long, and if you think about it, though, it's not Well it seems like.

Speaker 2:

I'm. I get what you're saying, but like you know, what.

Speaker 1:

I mean, yeah, the change of life path, the change of life path in 18 months, yeah, 18 months.

Speaker 2:

But it's called continuity case management. It's the unbroken chain of case management. So, instead of you going from point A to point B, point C, point D, point E, point F, you've got one fluid constant throughout the whole thing. That's been there, walk through the system, knows the options, knows the tools. Now he knows you pretty well, he's built a relationship with you and he can walk you through this, and probably a trust too. There's a relatability in anything, right. If I, you know, if I was a very famous podcaster, we would have something to talk about on a level you know what I mean, that maybe me and you couldn't talk about right now.

Speaker 2:

There's just something, and it's very much the same way with this right, that lived experience. We've been through that and now we're here and we can help you get there yeah, how much of that you know being involved in this side of the experience.

Speaker 3:

How much does that help you, like being able to navigate right, because I feel like that would give you, be an empowering part of that recovery my own, my own sense? How? I'd feel yeah, you're not wrong.

Speaker 2:

I mean, I've been doing outreach. That's the set, that's the other part of it. Is the outreach actually going into the tunnels and the washes?

Speaker 1:

yeah, that's what I wanted to ask you about.

Speaker 2:

Yep but for me, I healed, you know, and everybody's journey in with healing is completely different and equally beautiful. I just for me it was. I was called to go back right away, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1:

And I went back right away and I, when you say went back, meaning go back to the tunnels and and help yeah with people, with friends, yeah, I mean yeah, but with shine you mean, and at the time it was like three or four of us.

Speaker 2:

You know what I mean. And I think the first year we got 12 people out, so you know, 56 weeks we got 12 people, you know I mean, and that's pretty quick after you're kind of releasing that experience, oh wow like uh, probably from. My last day of homelessness was probably about three, three and a half months, oh wow Well. I went through residential treatment for two months and then yeah.

Speaker 1:

So how long total have you been not homeless and doing all of this?

Speaker 2:

August 10th 2018. Wow, so that's seven years coming up?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's awesome. So how often are you in the tunnels? Is this every week or every couple?

Speaker 2:

of weeks, every Saturday.

Speaker 1:

Every Saturday. Yeah, wow, so you actually take folks there that want to be part of and walk through and do the whole nine.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we're lucky now. I mean, we've been building at this for a long time because of you know we talked about this earlier like all the connections, right, like now we have probably, I think last Saturday we had 55 volunteers, 55. That's a lot of folks. So five different teams cover different areas of the city. You know, and it's really beautiful man Like my, we call them paper routes, right, so the route that I always go is they know me so well, Like they know that I'm sarcastic, they know I like to joke around, so I'll call out hey, shine a light. They're like is that Rob? I'm gonna kick his ass.

Speaker 2:

And I'll come out joking around and we're hugging and, like you know what I mean. It's completely. We recently we had our gala and one of the guys and one of my routes, his name is Dave he. He's an artist, right, so he sits in the tunnel. He draws with Sharpies and he's really good. He wrote he, he drew a long, long, long big piece and it was like kind of like the history of his tunnel and he drew us in there as part of the history of that tunnel, that's pretty powerful yeah so it's like they don't see it as they shouldn't.

Speaker 2:

We are them, right, we do care about them because we're authentic. Right, you want to go to the hospital? I'll take you to the hospital, I'll bring you back. I just want to make sure you're okay. You know what I mean. So many interactions like that, Even the ones that maybe aren't ready to come out, they become like almost advocates for us. They're like hey, go check on that girl over there. Hey, go behind that building. Maybe you didn't see them. You're like and now we have, you know, the office for the past two years the drop-in center. So they're coming by, they're getting clothes, you know. They come, sit in my office and hang listen, you're there when they're, when they're ready.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, that's the important part it was up to me.

Speaker 2:

Believe me, I go out there and hit them over the head and kidnap them everybody gets sober, but that's not realistic yeah, that's not real yeah I always. I always say like if, if I gave this three of us the same paintbrush, the same canvas and the same colors, we'd all paint different pictures. That's the point, not the problem. So how do we help you to paint your picture so you'll take ownership of it? You're not gonna stay out based on my picture, trust me, you're not.

Speaker 2:

But you know, I mean, you get the no it's got to be personal and nobody knows when that moment's gonna come. Because outside, looking in, I'm like, oh my god, this is horrible, you should be ready. But it's something internal, it's not. It's not. It's not that sometimes it can happen like that, but for the most part there's something that happens inside each one of us, right, that breaks like I, I'm trying to think, like I try to bring it into today. Right, it's like I made a commitment a while ago to go to the gym like last year. It went like three times right.

Speaker 1:

But then everybody, though that's everybody, I get it, but like it's the same thing, right, like something happened and it forced me to go to the gym, and then I can't but that was like that's a lot of people's journey with us.

Speaker 2:

Sometimes not a lot, but some, like they come in, they go back out. Yeah, we still love them, we're still there for them. They'll we'll re-engage them when they're ready, right like that's that approach that we have, that kind of keeps us connected to them that's a great point, because, right, because you do that.

Speaker 3:

I've done that a million times. Sometimes I've done it, I've worked out for years, other times I've lasted two days. So you just never know about that experience, it's that repetition.

Speaker 1:

If you stay repetition it's so much easier to go back.

Speaker 2:

It's harder to go back after you start hurting.

Speaker 1:

I was curious, because this is a serious situation, right? Like, do you guys have to deal with a lot of that? No, okay, so you guys don't even touch that? No, okay, I've been. And the reason why I'm saying that is because of what I've understood is that you know, child trafficking, prostitution, things like that. Then people end up becoming homeless.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yep, there's one piece of it I've seen some prostitution, of course, yep, you know, but nothing. I, and I think with my entire time of being homeless, I saw one family, one kid, two kids, I'm sorry, one family, but the way they move was very different because they knew if they got seen Especially with kids, cops it's coming.

Speaker 1:

It's all going to happen. That's what I was getting at too.

Speaker 2:

They're a very different move, Like where I was just out and walking around, no big deal For them. It was like very hidden.

Speaker 1:

I even felt that energy, yeah, because I had heard. What was it about? A homeless youth, right with the teens?

Speaker 3:

oh, yeah, they're out on 24 hours. Yeah, it was 24 hours.

Speaker 1:

They were mentioning that, like they have 24 hours before their child traffic.

Speaker 3:

It's like a surface, it's like so organized with, with everything, or they, you know, become homeless that's why I said the homeless youth is the homeless youth is very important because if they're out on the streets for longer than 24 hours, their risk of being child trafficked is like way up.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's extremely high. So interesting man, but I'm not interested at all. It's horrible.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was another great event that we participated in with the homeless youth. That was really positive and they were doing really big things in the city too similar to what you're doing.

Speaker 2:

Yep, I love those kind of work, like I'm on the advisory board for saint jude's ranch for children and it's like I I call those like up river things, right where it's like a lot of what the work that I do is down river. I'm getting them at 35, 40, you know mix, but in that wheelhouse, right where it's really important to get them up river that makes a lot of sense

Speaker 2:

doesn't mean that we're going to stop. It doesn't mean. But at least they know right, Like at least there's options and opportunities, Like they didn't get a chance. You know what I mean.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so how long have you been working with shine, like for for seven years total. You also work with apologize the other company, crossroads.

Speaker 2:

Crossroads Indigent Detox and Treatment Center in the state of Nevada. So it's like for your unhoused, your underinsured, your uninsured, your Medicaid specialty courts and then everything else. So it's detox triage, detox, residential treatment, housing with treatment and then outpatient.

Speaker 1:

Okay, what's most of the stories that you've seen over the last seven years of people that you've helped? What's their background? I know it's a lot of layers to it, but I'm just curious.

Speaker 2:

I think that a lot of times, what I've come to understand is this we want to do that right, we want to put that in a box, but the reality is it's not in a box.

Speaker 1:

I'm glad you said it, because you said 70% yeah, they're everywhere, every walk of life.

Speaker 2:

I mean everything. They're everywhere, every walk of life, I mean everything. There's. No, you know, usually there's trauma, Usually there's something, but in a detailed way. No, they're all varied. They're all so varied.

Speaker 1:

And I'm asking that on purpose, because I want our listeners to understand that it's 70% of the people, that it's all 100% off walks of life it touches everybody.

Speaker 2:

It touches every single person, every family. It's touched by mental health addiction. You know there's something going on. It's just, yeah, every layer of the community.

Speaker 3:

Some of the stigma is too because, like they always, people say like a lot of this is caused by the vaguest temptation. Right, we have the gambling, we have the ability, accessibility to alcohol, you can gamble, you can drink all at the same time. You can gamble, you can drink all at the same time. They put a lot of stigma on that being a leading cause. But to your point we talked about earlier, like New York has the same problem, LA does. They don't have those same temptations that maybe it's accessible here but really it's internal in a lot of these situations.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean for alcoholism addiction is a disease that centers in the mind. It starts in the mind. It means that I am bodily and mentally different than you when it comes to alcohol. You know what I mean. That's it.

Speaker 1:

It's a disease. I've never heard people put it that way 100% Like my younger brothers drink, they put it down, they walk away.

Speaker 2:

And that's just not my story, you know, and that's it Like Vegas is all those things you said, but on the flip side, the recovery is also as equally powerful. Like this is like a major hub for recovery.

Speaker 3:

Oh, that's yeah and it's massive. I can see that. Yeah, I never think about that way.

Speaker 1:

It's turning, turning Well, cause they have a lot of treatment centers a lot of things to help keep you on that path, like, like treatment centers, isn't recovery.

Speaker 2:

Oh, like I'm saying, like different fellowships, right Yep, the activity, the way they are, it's beautiful Yep.

Speaker 1:

I heard you say that your perspective is not to give money. And why is that?

Speaker 2:

Why, wouldn't you want to give money? That's just a personal thing. Okay, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1:

And believe me every time I say that the next person I see I have to give my dollars. Well, because that.

Speaker 2:

And, like I said, I don't say that to tell anybody what to do.

Speaker 2:

It's none of my business, but what's the most important thing is the connection Make them feel seen and heard. However you go about that, that's your business. But like a hello, you know, there's a girl outside that same gas station two days ago. I'm bringing my stepdaughter home from school and we stopped and I saw her sitting by the dumpster and I just kind of walked over. I didn't want to get all up in her space but I said, hey, you want a drink? And she just gave me the finger, okay, and I walked inside the store.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you know that's it. Like I don't. I always look at this like the boy scouts or the girl scouts, those vests they wear with all the badges. Right, like if I was to tell you if I was to get a badge for every single person that helped me was nice to me, then you know, I mean I and that's how it's supposed to be right, I even do an outreach. Right like I don't know how many times we made contact with that person before they. Finally, I don't know how many of our volunteers spoke to them. I don't know if our volunteers followed up with them during the week. Like so many things happen, other organizations right, like that wraparound effect and who knows? Right, and I don't try not to even think about it. Right, I just try to think about what's in front of me. What can I do? What can I do, cause I think a lot of issues we get overwhelmed, right? We?

Speaker 2:

think oh, we can't do nothing about it Because it's so big. Yeah, like it's just so big yeah yeah, yeah, but that scholarship that I got to that treatment center was $8,000. I don't know how many $20 donations, $50 donations, I have no idea what. If one person had said I can't do it make a difference, I wouldn't be here right now no-transcript to the same questions.

Speaker 1:

But with the tunnel, right, you mentioned, I think it was like last week it was like 55 people volunteers, yeah, what does that look like for somebody Like, say, they wanted to participate in China Light and they wanted to be on there on a Saturday? What does that actually look like? I know it's dangerous, right? Obviously too. No, isn't that dangerous? Okay?

Speaker 2:

well, you're a big guy. No, I, I've been doing it for seven years and never been touched. You know, I mean I think the worst things ever happened. I've been told to fuck off a couple times, but that happens on the streets, we're good, you know, I mean like no big deal, like that happened to me today.

Speaker 1:

No, I mean, you're dealing with people in crisis, right like let's be fair and they'll just say, hey, not today or whatever, but we're a community project.

Speaker 2:

We welcome all volunteers. We do, uh, our bag building on wednesdays at 4 15. It's at our office 23, 30 highland drive, and then every saturday we meet 7 45 for outreach and then every sunday we have a specific team that goes out. I think it's like 7, 7, 30, same okay in the morning.

Speaker 1:

I'm assuming this is okay. Yeah, got it okay. Yeah now when you say bags, so you're giving these out, right, what's in these bags? We?

Speaker 2:

don't. We don't give out anything that makes it easier to be homeless long term. Right, got it. We're not so rigid that if you guys donated some tents we wouldn't give them out. But I'm not seeking those things out. I'm looking for water, granola bars, socks, you know some wipes, things, basic stuff, flashlight batteries like dollar store flashlights. It's a key to a conversation. You know what I mean If I walk up to you and we're a mile underground. Your feet are wet, you haven't had a drink in a while and I go hey here you go, I've gone out with a pack of cigarettes.

Speaker 2:

You know, it's like a transference of something right. Here I'm thinking of you, you know what I mean. And, uh, it creates a bubble where we can have a conversation. You know, and sometimes you do it and you know like I think about something. Like you'll be with a group of five or six or ten people and maybe they're not vibing with me. Okay, I just kind of slide away, let the other guys do it, right, like you never know. You know what I mean.

Speaker 2:

The best day I ever had out there, statistically, was that same guy, jeff, right, my mentor. He calls and he says meet my friends over here. And I was like a year and a half into it. So I was like gung ho, right, I was like ahead of everybody, I was running and gunning, I'm going to save everybody, right, and I go to meet his friends at this tunnel. And they pull up and they got like Gucci belts and Beamer, you know all the things, right. And I was like like oh my god, but that's how blocked I am, right at that moment. That's, that's my truth. Right, we walk into this tunnel, I sit down, start talking to the first person and then for the next hour, all my name was called. We got 10 people out that day, 10 people out of one tunnel. It just doesn't matter, right? Like they're human beings, they may see something in you that reminds them of a friend the way, way you talk, the voice.

Speaker 3:

I don't know your energy Something connects.

Speaker 1:

Something.

Speaker 2:

You know what I mean? Yeah and boom, and that day was a great lesson, right. But that's like the same thing I try to tell people, like almost like telling on myself to help people understand that like you can make a difference and you can connect with people.

Speaker 1:

So what's next for you as far as like speaking and stuff, too right, that's the next piece you want to get into, man, because people got to continue to keep. I can talk to you for hours, man, just listening to how calm you are and being able to connect with people, but when you're doing the public speaking, is that something that you really want to take advantage of?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think it's the next step for me. I do a lot of it, obviously, locally, but like I for me, I just know that, like God's got big plans, man, you know what I mean. Like I don't know what they are, it's not my job to figure it out, but I just got to keep my feet moving and started that website and I'm just showing up and doing everything I can. You know what I mean?

Speaker 1:

yeah, yeah it's gonna connect, it's gonna, it's gonna connect for sure. Man, just for for business or just life advice in general, man, I mean, I think this is like you said before, this is the craziest thing we deal with, man. But what would you say to our listeners, people that might have hit rock bottom or are listening to this, or maybe in a dark place or whatever the scenario is? What would be something that you could share, maybe from your perspective, or that could help them, that can get them out of that space, if they've got a dream or goal or something they want to accomplish?

Speaker 2:

I think, for people in a dark place, I would say that recovery is real. You know you're never too far gone, you know I mean you're not alone, that's for sure. You just got to reach out. That's the. The bravest thing I ever did in my life was ask for help. You know, and once you get on your feet, it's servant servant leadership, servant leadership, 100%.

Speaker 1:

And ask for help. Yeah, yeah, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2:

I love that I am surrounded by great people. I've been able to help build a really great team, but they're all leaders. If I don't come in tomorrow, nothing changes at work.

Speaker 1:

You know what I mean?

Speaker 2:

That's awesome, yeah, and they have some great and I'm trying to help them achieve those, and how can I lift them up? You know what I mean. So I work for them.

Speaker 1:

That's awesome. Yeah, All right, I'm going to change this for one second man, because we always ask people about food. Man, because I'm a big foodie.

Speaker 2:

But what's your favorite restaurant in Vegas? You've been here for a while. You had to go to. So I'm not saying I'm going to for me, I'm a sushi guy. Oh, okay, okay, sushi fever, sushi fever.

Speaker 1:

We were just talking about that. We just passed by that, yeah, so I'm going to tell you something real quick, I think, uh, somebody else mentioned that I think it was like a one Mazi Mazi, one of the first places I kept going to. That's like one of my favorite spots. It's excellent. I grew up back home. It's pizzerias, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

And every pizzeria was a little bit different, and I think for me, I think every sushi place is a little different. That's true.

Speaker 1:

And they got good service there too.

Speaker 2:

Man, 100% yeah they got great service there.

Speaker 1:

Sushi fever is Excellent. That's good. That's good stuff. I'm glad you said that we aligned. Is there anything that we forgot to ask you that you want to leave us out on? I don't think so. I think we covered a lot of stuff. How can people reach out to you guys? I don't know if donations, things like that.

Speaker 2:

What would you like them to do? What's the best direction? We're on social media website shine, check us out, follow, like, share, support. Every little bit helps, and we're always looking for granola bars, socks, waters, the things I talked about earlier. And just if you'd like to make a donation, of course, we're always welcome to that too. Awesome, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Come check it out. Yeah, I got to come check you out. Man, for sure I got to come. It's been on my gut for a long time and I remember Angel and Letitia. I don't know if you know them. I think they've been out a few times to check you guys out in the tunnel. I got to do that. Are you allowed to bring kids to do that or you cannot? 10 and eight Too young, Too young, Okay. What age do you allow? 16.

Speaker 2:

Grown Okay so you have teenagers. I mean, you got an but we try to keep it because you're going to see some things.

Speaker 1:

No, I guess, real. Yeah, that's real. Okay. Well, rob, absolute pleasure, my man. Thank you, I keep tabs on you, man. We have to keep having you come back every year. Man, just drop some dimes on us, man. Keep us posted on what's happening, how we can help. So appreciate your time, man, check us out at TheVegasServecom. We'll see you next time.