Mole People is a term used to refer to the countless number of homeless people who live under New York City in abandoned subway tunnels. Estimates of the number of individuals living in this way are hard to obtain, but a 1989 survey suggested around 5000. While it is accepted that homeless people in large cities will make use of accessible, abandoned structures for shelter, urban legends persist that make stronger ascertations. These include claims that 'mole people' have formed small, ordered societies similar to tribes, numbering up to hundreds of people. It has also been suggested that these have developed their own cultural traits and even have electricity by illegal hook-up. The subject has attracted some attention from sociologists but is highly controversial and subject to a lack of concrete evidence.

An episode of Jerry Springer featured this unusual society.

Books

• The Mole People: Life In The Tunnels Beneath New York City - Jennifer Toth (Chicago Review Press, 1993)

• The Tunnel: The Underground Homeless Of New York City - Margaret Morton (Yale University Press, 1996)

External links

• Fragile Dwelling - Margaret Morton
• disinformation:the mole people
• In Search of the Mole People - Victor David
• Fantasy in The Mole People - a critical look at the book of the same name ("Here's the problem in a nutshell: every fact in this book that I can verify independently is wrong.")