Morgan Weber and Christopher Stevenson, leaders of the Butterfly Effect, held their third annual “Sleep In” event, a 24-hour homeless simulation where participants camped at the University Library lawn Wednesday and Thursday.
The point of the event, according to Stevenson, is to bring awareness to those who are affected by housing insecurity and homelessness.
“This was a 24-hour event symbolizing the struggles that people are going through on our campus today,” Stevenson said.
Weber said that she hopes that people walking by the event will take a moment to think about the situation.
“We’re time impoverished … so I knew that I couldn’t get people to stop and take a minute,” Weber said. “But I knew that as they walked by, they could read the signs and understand what is happening.”
Tents were pitched in a circle outside Faculty Office-3 where participants, including Weber and Stevenson, spent their day starting at 3 p.m. on Wednesday. They then slept overnight on campus and concluded the event on Thursday afternoon.
Activities focused on encouraging people to realize the value in the housing they have and free resources for those in need were available.
Long Beach State’s Basic Needs Program provides financial, food and housing resources for students. Something Weber said needs more development.
“Because the system works within the school system, it’s not going to change until we have infrastructure change in our government,” Weber said.
As homelessness continues to be an issue in California, especially in the California State University system, groups like the Butterfly Project provide an extra resource that schools and cities can’t necessarily provide.