Parking lot sleepover focuses on needs of homeless

Share Our Selves is looking for participants to sleep out in a parking lot.

For a second year, the Costa Mesa-based nonprofit is hosting Sleep Out on Superior, where attendees can camp out on cardboard boxes at SOS’ parking lot for a night to get a taste what the homeless experience or just stay for a few hours and help out.

The Nov. 20 event coincides with National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week.

SOS organizers are calling Sleep Out on Superior a “call to solidarity with the homeless in our community, and a moment in time when we align ourselves with someone we see but do not understand.”

The cost is $25 or a donation of $25 worth of hygiene items, socks, blankets or canned goods.

It begins at 6:30 p.m. For those who sleep over, it ends at 7 a.m. Nov. 21.

Participants will assemble Thanksgiving food bags, as well as hygiene kits and lunches for SOS’ homeless clients. SOS will screen a documentary and host guest speakers from the Jamboree Housing Corp. in Irvine and St. John the Divine Episcopal Church in Costa Mesa.

Katie Santore, SOS’ director of marketing and public relations, noted that homelessness is a recurring issue in Costa Mesa that comes to the forefront every few years. Sleep Out on Superior will provide a new standpoint on a timely topic, she said.

“It’s definitely something people are aware of and it’s something we want to show from the perspective of our clients,” Santore said.

Last year’s Sleep Out on Superior had about 50 participants, 30 of whom spent the night. SOS leaders got the idea from a similar event in New Orleans.

For more information or to sign up, visit shareourselves.org or call (949) 270-2137.

SOS is at 1550 Superior Ave., Costa Mesa.