Shaping Spirits

Shirley Raines found her purpose through tragedy. In 1990, she lost her 2-year-old son Demetrius in a freak accident. While staying with her grandmother, he ingested a medication, and later died in the hospital, only days short of his third birthday. Following the death of her son, she also lost her grandmother and her son’s biological father. For decades following, she lived a life overrun with anxiety and panic disorders, everyday breaking a little more under the pressure of what she lost.

Her twin sister urged her to put her agony to work. In 2017, Raines did just that when a church friend recommended she help hand out food to those in need. Stepping out onto Los Angeles’ Skid Row–54 blocks of Los Angeles, riddled with poverty and homelessness–she felt an overwhelming sense of belonging.

“It was like going home,” says Raines. “It was just going to the streets and taking care of people. There was no shock. There was no awe.”

Raines, founder of the nonprofit Beauty2theStreetz, leads a busy life aiding the homeless community in Los Angeles. Hours before the sun rises at around 1:30 in the morning, she starts gathering her thoughts and preparing for the day. First thing, she applies her colorful makeup and full fake lashes. At 5:00 a.m. she is off to a warehouse to load her van with all the supplies needed for the day, including bags she fills with warm water so that people can get their hair and makeup done. At 6:00 a.m. she hits the road again to get to the site of her work for that day. At 7 a.m. volunteers start rolling in, helping set up and unloading the van while the cook prepares food. As they set up, a line starts to form, people awaiting services. Within hours, the streets turn into a kitchen, hair salon, and makeover stand all-in-one.

Over the course of the day, the volunteers will serve hundreds of people. Raines spends every waking hour serving others.

The people of Skid Row appreciated her initial endeavor of handing out clothing, food, and water, but that is not what inspired her the most. Raines sports bright hair and bold makeup, which was often complimented by the people she helped. When she recognized the interest in beauty on the streets, she realized she could bring something unique to the homeless community.

Naturally, she offered to do people’s hair and makeup. Her efforts started with the transgender female community, who were often forced to wear male clothing because no one would give them female clothing. Disgusted, she immediately brought them clothes, wigs, and lashes to support their personal identities. She then branched out and asked cisgender women if they wanted any hair and makeup supplies. Raines picked up mascaras, lashes, and other makeup tools, and ran home to grab unused hair dye. She went to work, uplifting people with fresh makeup and a new haircut.

Raines could see the dignity that she provided people, offering them even a small sense of autonomy in choosing their hair color or makeup style. She realized how crucial it was to provide a sense of humanity to a marginalized population and heard her true calling for the first time–providing comfort and confidence to the unhoused community in Los Angeles.

Raines’ passion grew stronger as her organization grew bigger. Beauty2theStreetz turned into a full fledged nonprofit organization with nine volunteers and countless donors and contributors. In the beginning of her own organization, she was primarily doing hair and makeup but wanted to ensure people also had access to food, clothes, and other necessities.

Upon realizing how big the need was, she reached out for help to start offering services on a larger scale. With efficient systems and structures in place, Raines and her team of volunteers are able to feed 1,000 people a week alongside providing beauty care and essential supplies.

“I would like to think the reason our particular work impacts the community in a positive way is because of the level in which we give,” says Raines. “We give with compassion. We give with love and grace.”

When Raines began streaming her volunteering events on Instagram and Tik Tok, Beauty2theStreetz gained attention from many, both positively and negatively. The internet not only casts judgments on the homeless community, but also on Raines herself, sometimes saying things like, “How can you help the homeless and you can’t even save your own child? Your child died so you’re irresponsible.”

Raines stood her ground, and continued to share her experiences, building a large online community that spans over six million people across the globe. Through the help of social media, her organization has grown and gained attention from people who are interested in learning more about the homeless crisis or directly helping the community, and brands that want to support Raines and her team. Beauty2theStreetz is fully funded by social media, helping Raines put her dream to work.

“Social media has not affected the work that I’ve done, social media is the reason I’m able to do the work that I do,” says Raines. “I have the heart. I have the dream. I have the tenacity and the skill set, but I don’t have the coins.” ic on the streets.

Raines encourages people to realize through this tragic pandemic that homelessness is a reality that we are all susceptible to. She explains, “I gotta change the narrative of homelessness. I need to let people know that this could be you at any given time.”

The narrative of the unhoused community is often not a positive or accurate representation of the life they lead. The pointing and whispering, physical and psychological violence, or judgment and ostracization, they experience it all. Raines explains her frustration with people’s ability to judge a person based on subjects they know little about. Many people blame the homeless themselves for living on the streets, attributing their struggles to drug abuse or alcoholism.

She offers an anecdote about a woman whose “husband left her and she was a single mom, and she never had a job. She had no income, she had no family… and then she got down on her luck and she became homeless. And then when she became homeless, they started raping her, and then when they started raping her she couldn’t function or cope, so she started drinking.”

The ongoing story of COVID-19 is known all too well, but the narrative of the unhoused is often left untold. In March of 2020, the residents of California were ordered to stay home and initially Raines and her team complied. However, when Raines checked her Instagram messages she noticed several messages from the homeless community.

“Where are you?”

“We are hungry and nobody is helping us.”

“We are alone.”

Knowing her community was extremely vulnerable to the virus, Raines shifted her efforts to providing food, protection, and hygiene products opposed to hair and makeup services. Her team handed out food and hygiene kits with hand sanitizer, masks, bottled water, and socks. There was still a desire for beauty services so the team got wigs, brushes, and makeup so people could style themselves without risking contamination. The balance between staying safe and providing security was key to maneuvering through the pandem-

She encourages onlookers to consider that they are getting only a glimpse into the life of a person, a glimpse that shows them at their worst.

On any given day in the United States, it is estimated that 580,466 people experience homelessness, a risk that increases in marginalized groups. Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders have the highest rate of homelessness, followed by African Americans and then Native Americans. All of these rates are much higher than the national rate of homelessness in America, which lies at 18 out of every 10,000 people.

There are an estimated 17,000 to 40,000 deaths in the homeless community every year. The top contributors to death are drug abuse, violence, traffic accidents, and health conditions that could be treated with accessible health care. Suicide is also an unfortunate reality of living on the streets. A study published by the National Library of Medicine recorded that out of 330 homeless individuals, 56 percent of the men and 78 percent of the women had suicidal ideations and 27 percent of the men and 56 percent of the women had acted on those ideations. The danger of being unhoused is immense. In fact, the average life expectancy of someone experiencing homelessness is only 50 years old compared to the 77 years of a housed person.

Raines has not only touched the hearts of the homeless community, and her followers, but she even got recognition from CNN. In 2021, she was awarded the CNN Hero of the Year award. Out of ten finalists she was nominated by online voters and presented the award onstage by Anderson Cooper and Kelly Ripa where she was able to speak about her work.

“This surely hasn’t been easy. I stand before you a very broken woman,” an emotional Raines said. “I am a mother without a son and there are a lot of people in the streets without a mother – and I feel like it’s a fair exchange.”

For being a finalist she was awarded $10,000 to expand her work, and for becoming a CNN Hero of the Year, $100,000 dollars was awarded to her, which was all poured right back into her efforts to help the homeless.

At the 2022 People’s Choice Awards, Music artist Lizzo accepted the People’s Champion Honor award and brought 17 activists with her on stage, Raines being one of them. Lizzo explained that no one becomes an icon by simply having a platform for an extended period of time, but using your platform for good. Lizzo has spent her career using her platform to amplify marginalized voices. She highlighted Raines’ work with the homeless community.

Many compliment Raines for being a hero, but she doesn’t see it that way. To her, the work she does is something that anyone could do. When she started going out to the streets, she was making food in her tiny apartment and offering hair supplies that she had in her house. Quite simply, she was called to help.

Raines realized that her purpose was to serve the homeless community and show them love, care, and compassion, something that they aren’t met with often.

“It’s my pure purpose for being on this planet. I truly believe that. You don’t give up on your purpose,” says Raines.

Raines attributes much of her healing to the work that she does now. While the trauma of losing a child doesn’t go away, helping others in crisis brought Raines her only source of comfort.

She shares, “I do know this work has been my therapy, it has been my healing.”