CARSON CITY -- At least five legislators and as many as 100 other people will be sleeping in tents outside the Legislature overnight on Feb. 18 to draw attention to the hardships homeless people face in Nevada.

Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, said Wednesday she is organizing the "Tent City" to publicize the need to provide transitional housing and mental health assistance to homeless people. She will introduce a bill to appropriate $20 million to assist homeless people, more than double the $9 million spent after the 2005 Legislature.

Gov. Jim Gibbons has been invited to tent with them, but has declined, according to Leslie. She still hopes he will reconsider, or at least show up for a few minutes that evening to talk with homeless people. Gibbons' staff could not confirm that he has declined the invitation.

Temperatures for that night in February usually are in the mid-20s. Snow is frequent as well.

"Folks who are homeless people sleep in conditions like that a lot," Clark County homeless services coordinator Shannon West said.

West anticipates as many as 40 Las Vegas residents, including some homeless, will make the trek to Carson City.

"We want legislators to hear their stories," West said.

The idea of the tent city and the Homeless Awareness Day set for Feb. 19 at the Legislature is to bring attention to initiatives to help the homeless.

Leslie's Assembly Health and Human Services Committee will hold hearings on homeless-related bills that afternoon.

Marcus Conklin, David Parks, Steven Horsford and Marilyn Kirkpatrick, all Clark County Democrats, have agreed to spend the night in the tent city, according to Leslie. Others will be asked to participate.

Leslie said homeless people need as long as two years of transitional housing and mental health assistance to break the cycle of living on the street.

"We need them to become stabilized enough so they can be productive citizens," she said.