LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – It is a daunting task: cleaning up trash from the washes and tunnels of Las Vegas because so many unhoused people call them home. One man is on a mission to do just that working with, not against those who live there. He believes everyone regardless of their circumstance deserves a clean place to call home.
“I hate trash, I mean. If we look at our city, we have such a beautiful city, but unfortunately, it’s just riddled with trash,” asserted Austin Wyrick. It has taken two decades for Wyrick to see the beauty of Las Vegas.
“I’ve kind of resented this city for a long time because of the lifestyle that I had here, you know, I was a drug addict, and I know that’s all my fault, right? But I was a child, right? I was, you know, from 9 to 13, right…where that landed me was, you know, in jail, you know, couch surfing, homeless, family not wanting me. Very miserable…some dark places,” Wyrick recounted.
The wash and tunnels near the Strip by Flamingo Road and University Center Drive despite the mounds of trash is now a bright spot in his life giving him purpose.
“You have to start somewhere, right? I want my life to mean something,” Wyrick shared.
For the last five Saturdays, Wyrick, along fellow volunteers with the group he created called Pick it Up Las Vegas have come to this same location to pick up trash.
“There’s a gentleman down there who’s been living here for 10 years, 10 years, right? And they kick him out every two weeks and he comes back, right? That’s not working,” Wyrick argued. Wyrick says he is working with the unhoused to clean up what they consider home.
“It started with actually making relationships with them and talking to them like regular people and just letting them know, ‘Hey, this is what I’m doing and I’m just trying to make a better community for everybody’… they actually asked me for trash bags and when I’ve come back, they have bags for me of trash,” Wyrick revealed.
The big goal for Wyrick and Pick it Up Las Vegas: come up with private funding to pay the unhoused to pick up trash.
The group now goes out regularly on Saturdays. They are making a big push for volunteers next Saturday, March 29th at 8 a.m. The meet up location is 2330 Highland Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89102. Call (702) 830-0619 for more information.
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