As the sun rose over Library Mall Thursday, a group of UW-Madison students awoke outdoors to fresh perspectives thanks to the second night of the Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group's homelessness awareness sleep-out.
Students slept in sleeping bags laid on top of cardboard boxes Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights this week. Several students said participating in the demonstration changed their perceptions of homelessness.
\It made me more aware that homeless people are here,"" UW-Madison junior Jasmine Harper said Thursday morning after sleeping out for the first time. ""They're not just the people on State Street asking for money, but they're individuals with different situations.""
UW-Madison freshman Megan Sveum agreed the sleep-out had affected her opinions.
""It's kind of something you can't understand until you experience it, but at the same time, we didn't really experience it,"" Sveum said. ""We had sleeping bags and were here with all our friends.""
Jocelyn Gibert, a UW-Madison junior and organizer of the sleep-out, said one memorable experience was speaking with homeless people who joined the participants Tuesday and Wednesday nights.
""It's real nice to put a face with the name and a struggle with the face,"" Gibert said. ""You can't just say 'that's another stat in the book.'""
For Sveum, listening to homeless people Wednesday night was an eye-opening experience.
""They said, 'On State Street, the college students just walk by and act like we're not even there.' I felt terrible because I do it too,"" Sveum said.
Members of the Madison Warming Center Campaign, a coalition of homeless and non-homeless Madisonians seeking increased shelter services, also joined the sleep-out.
UW-Madison freshman Ben Spies, a member of MWCC, said the group seeks a shelter that would accommodate all homeless people in Madison unable to get one of the 300 existing shelter beds. Madison's homeless population is about 2,000, Spies said.
Richard Ricundou, an MWCC member, and Gibert said they hope to expand the sleep-out demonstration to include more groups. Ricundou suggested Mayor Dave Cieslewicz could join them next time and perhaps would then see more urgency in the problem of homelessness.
