[media-credit name=’DEREK MONTGOMERY/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]A cold front did not stop the Madison Warming Center Campaign from holding a sleep-out on Library Mall Monday and Tuesday nights to gather more than 900 signatures for a petition and raise awareness of the need for a wet shelter in Madison at their “Falk-Lewicz-Ville” campsite.

“We’ve gotten a lot of people interested,” campaign member Ryan Richardson said, adding this may not be the last time the campaign stages a sleep-out. “The event has been fantastic.”

Approximately 30 campaign members camped out each night in an effort to demonstrate what people have to do and what they look like if they do not have a place to live, Richard Ricundou, who acts as fundraiser and spokesperson for the campaign, said. Homeless people are often seen as “eye-sores” on the community, he added.

Campaign member Erin McCoy said signatures were collected for the petition from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday and Tuesday. According to McCoy, the campaign will submit the petition to Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk before the next city budget is planned.

The campaign also gathered e-mail addresses and will ask people to send letters to their representatives, McCoy added.

Richardson said the campaign was able to offer some company and provide an alternative space for homeless people who were running out of time at a shelter.

The group held a vigil Tuesday night for three homeless men who died last winter. Members walked from Library Mall to the Capitol holding candles.

The Madison Warming Center Campaign has been fighting for a wet shelter since February 2004. The group staged a sit-in to raise awareness at Cieslewicz’s office in December, which ended in almost 20 members being arrested, according to Richardson.

The campaign requested $325,000 for the construction of a wet shelter. City and county dollars would no longer be spent on current problems such as citations and police patrolling if a wet shelter was built, a release said.

The City of Madison’s efforts, such as the minimum-wage ordinance and affordable-housing initiatives, do help the homeless, Richardson said, adding the city has many resources it could still use to help the homeless if only it had the “political will” to do so.

“I think Mayor Dave is doing a good job in a lot of areas, but there are some gaps, and the city can fill those gaps,” Richardson said.

Cieslewicz said the city’s strategy is to treat the “root causes” of homelessness, and there are many prevention efforts within the city to solve the overall problem instead of just find a bed for an individual for one night.

Campaign member Ryan Spangler said there are still homelessness issues that need to be addressed in the city.

“There is a certain segment of the population that can’t be reached with affordable housing and minimum wage,” Spangler said.

The city has found money for the Overture Center and the Goodman Community Pool, and Spangler said he does not believe the city is “too broke” to help the homeless.