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The former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development surveyed the city's tunnels where hundreds of people sought refuge, using his campaign platform to highlight the problem of homelessness in the city. Nevada.
"It's not mine or anyone else who's lost under the hotels worth hundreds of millions of dollars, in one of the places known around the world as a playground for people of this country and the whole world, only people who live in extreme poverty and do not even sleep on the street, but in a drainage tunnel, "Castro said at an event in Las Vegas the next day .
Sawyer Hackett, Castro's press attaché for the election campaign, who joined the tour, described the experience as a "revelation". Castro "pulled out a lot".
"It's one of those opportunities that's open and not really political, it's a chance to talk to these people and see what they're going through," Hackett told CNN on Saturday.
Hackett said the campaign aimed to make housing "a hot issue" and planned to release his housing plan in the coming weeks.
"It's a fantastic opportunity to raise these issues in the context of a presidential campaign because, you know, it's a problem that's happening in all major cities," Hackett said. "And we just do not do enough to fight it."
Louis Lacey, director of crisis teams at HELP of Southern Nevada, who led the tour with Castro on Friday, said the 2020 candidate "reacted with real concern" to what he had seen.
"Because of his experience with HUD, (Castro) was quite familiar with homelessness – in fact, very competent – and he listened actively to the people we met and he was engaged in a conversation," he said. Lacey at CNN on Saturday. "I felt that his concern was genuine and genuine."
Storm runoff serves as a "de facto refuge" for men and women to escape the extreme heat or cold of Las Vegas, according to Lacey. From a few hundred to more than 500 people have taken refuge in these tunnels, he said.
Lacey explained that for 12 years, Castro was the first presidential candidate to visit the tunnels of the organization.
"It was good to see someone who was actively campaigning to lead our government and who cared enough to say," Hey, come down and take a look, "said Lacey.
"These individuals who have chosen to take refuge in the tunnels are human beings," said Lacey. "Empathy and compassion, as well as a realistic and effective solution, are what is needed in this situation."
Paul LeBlanc of CNN contributed to this report.
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