[media-credit name=’Derek Montgomery’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]Following an overnight sit-in protest, 18 people, mostly University of Wisconsin students, were arrested Friday evening after refusing to leave Mayor Dave Cieslewicz’s office in the City-County Building.

After officers told protestors the building was closed for the weekend and they were asked to leave, several group members departed and the remaining were charged with trespassing, according to a police release.

UW sophomore Caleigh Mandel-Brehm, who was one of the protesters, said everyone was given $288 citations for trespassing, while 15 people — five of which were homeless — were also given $412 citations for resisting arrest.

“[We] went limp and police took us out on a dolly one by one,” she added.

The sit-in protest followed a rally and march to the mayor’s office Thursday afternoon that was sponsored by the Madison Warming Center Campaign. The protesters demanded the mayor make a commitment to allocate funds for an emergency homeless shelter for the approaching winter, according to Mandel-Brehm.

“We understood that if 5 p.m. rolled around we would be arrested,” she said, adding when Cieslewicz released a statement in response to their protest, they decided it did not meet their demands, and they would stay as long as possible.

The mayor’s statement said the city has been aggressively addressing issues facing homeless people in Madison, and the city is already providing emergency shelters, warming houses and services to solve the issue of homelessness.

“Homelessness is an issue that I take very seriously, and it is one that we have made a major investment in addressing,” Cieslewicz said in the release. “We have focused these investments … on permanent solutions that address the root causes of poverty and homelessness.”

The mayor also proposed holding a community meeting this week to determine if more emergency shelter space is necessary for this winter.

“No one person or group has all the answers, so I am eager to hear from all of the stakeholders who are involved in the different facets of this issue,” Cieslewicz said.

Mandel-Brehm said the meeting would not be enough because it is closed to the public, and the panel is made up of people who are “strongly against” the use of additional funds for a warming center.

“We think the meeting should be public … [and] we are continuing to pressure that this meeting have other representatives,” she said.

UW sophomore Nathan Fuller, another arrested protestor, was involved with the founding of the warming center campaign. He said he hopes the city will be willing to “take responsibility” for the homelessness issue.

“I think the mayor and people who deal with homelessness all believe that [it] is an issue that needs to be addressed,” Fuller said, calling the experience “empowering.”

“The city not only has the capacity, but an obligation to take action on homelessness in Madison,” he added.

Mandel-Brehm said they will continue to fight if their requests are not addressed further.

“We feel like we have just begun the fight. We’re planning on keeping up the pressure,” she said. “I think we made huge gains with our sit-in … [and Cieslewicz] is shaking in his boots.”