Mascara, warm meals and new clothes are valuables that many take for granted. For some, those products can provide a sense of dignity, according to one woman whose organization’s mission is — with a bit of help from beauty products and self-care — to reshape the stigma on unhoused communities.
Founded by Shirley Raines on the back streets of Los Angeles, the nonprofit Beauty 2 the Streetz travels by van to LA's Skid Row on Tuesdays and Sundays, Las Vegas on Thursdays and Fridays and San Diego, on Wednesdays, to care for those experiencing homelessness.
What motivates Raines is not only destigmatizing the conversation about homelessness but also providing dignity, respect and care.
“[Beauty 2 the Streetz] can put a big paragraph together; [however] that means nothing,” Raines said. “And a mission statement is not so much of what you say on paper [or] what you say on your website, it’s how you do it.”
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Beauty 2 the Streetz has been recognized for advocating for and providing resources to countless individuals. Raines’ work has garnered the attention of millions across various platforms like TikTok, and she was acknowledged as the 2021 CNN Hero for humanizing the housing-insecurity crisis.
“I think that people expect a feel-good story because it looks like [Beauty 2 the Streetz] does feel-good work, but it actually came from my pain, my trauma,” Raines said.
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Raines experienced housing insecurity when caring for her firstborn child, Demetrius. At the time, she moved from hotel to hotel to provide shelter for her son. However, just five days before his 3rd birthday, Demetrius passed away in a tragic accident.
Raines felt responsible for her son’s death due to her circumstances. And after his passing, she began to experience more grief, exacerbating her anxiety.
“Being a solo survivor of a lot of my family — even my son’s father passed away — [I was] just really trying to figure out my purpose with all this pain I’ve been through in my 40s,” Raines said. “I couldn’t take it anymore, and my sister was like, ‘When are you going to forgive yourself? Your son would not want you to live like this.’”
That conversation prompted Raines to find a purpose, which became caring for communities impacted by homelessness.
“I certainly have been there myself, and I wish that I have had a little help and [then] my son would have still been alive … maybe not,” Raines said. “But at least we try to offer that help to others so they don’t have to experience some of the things we’ve gone through.”
Raines was motivated by her pain to visit communities like Skid Row and Las Vegas. Skid Row, for example, holds a personal connection to Raines because it was once her home. With Las Vegas, she was inspired to care for others after seeing people living on the streets in extreme temperatures.
For San Diego, Raines — with her firstborn — walked the streets of Coronado Island. Now, servicing this community, Raines noticed something different in San Diego compared to Skid Row and Las Vegas.
“San Diego is going to be one of my saddest places that I’ve been to in a while because there’s so much youth out there in San Diego,” Raines said. “I’ve not been to a homeless community where I’ve experienced that amount of pregnancy and that many young kids on the street.”
Due to the differences in age across the communities Beauty 2 the Streetz serves, the resources vary. For example, essential childcare items like diapers are commonly distributed in San Diego.
After receiving enough grants and donations, Raines expanded her support for the community by operating a food truck called Foodie 2 the Streetz, which visits many San Diego neighborhoods.
“We provide hot meals, so we bring our food truck down [and] we cook burgers, enchiladas, tacos,” Raines said. “Whatever the menu is, we [also] provide cupcakes, donuts, honey buns and candy because everyone needs a little sweets.”
Having the opportunity to care for others is a priority for Beauty 2 the Streetz. Raines and her organization are looking to expand their services, starting with a mobile hair station.
“The goal right now is to get this mobile hair station up and running so we can drive to San Diego, go to Los Angeles [and] we can go to Las Vegas,” Raines said. “We’re doing hair on the corner and there’s nothing wrong with it, but it’s nothing like going to the salon. So here we drive up with this mobile hair station and then it provides [unhoused individuals] a sense of dignity.”
In the future, Raines has ambitions that Beauty 2 the Streetz will visit other areas impacted by homelessness, like Atlanta and Texas. But as ever with Raines, the focus is on her community, rather than herself.
“I really hope people aren’t paying attention too much to the messenger — who was me — but more so to the message that we’re trying to share, and I’m glad that people are paying attention to homelessness,” Raines said. “I’m glad that so many people are crying over the videos, which means you’re sensitive to [homelessness], which means, hopefully, we can get something done now.”
