This report is a part of America Sturdy, an ABC Information collection that highlights tales of energy and resilience throughout the nation.
Each weekend, Shirley Raines will get up early to drive to Skid Row, a neighborhood in downtown Los Angeles recognized for its struggles with homelessness and poverty.
At Skid Row, Raines wears many various hats: She is a make-up artist, hair technician, supplier and mom determine. She rejuvenates, dyes hair, distributes meals and sends her clients away with a hearty “I really like you”.
Magnificence 2 The Streetz, a gaggle based by Raines himself, has helped tons of if not 1000’s of homeless folks within the space for the previous six years. She and her crew present these in want with scorching showers, toiletries and different requirements to make life simpler for folks on the road.
Shirley Raines has been offering make-up, showers, and meals to the Skid Row homeless group in Los Angeles, California for about six years.
Raines has began documenting her work and the tales of the folks she serves on social media and has garnered tens of millions of views and likes on TikTok. Within the feedback part, she fends off the stigma of homeless and impoverished communities. However she hopes her movies will remind viewers that her clients deserve love, happiness, and a superb life as nicely.
“I would like folks to know and know that you would be anytime,” Raines mentioned, referring to these dwelling with homelessness. “How come we taught society that these individuals are liable for their circumstances?”
How Magnificence 2 The Streetz started
In 1987, Raines misplaced her son Demetrius a couple of days earlier than his third birthday. She grieved for years and sought solutions to her loss and ache.
Six years in the past, she stumbled upon a buddy in church attempting to feed the homeless and invited her to know her grief. That was the start of Raines’ journey to Magnificence 2 The Streetz.
“I feel it simply hit me – that I needed to do one thing with this ache,” mentioned Raines. “I by no means anticipated that this work can be so helpful for me.”
She continued her work in Skid Row at a neighborhood charity and shortly turned often known as the “Make-Up Woman”. Raines all the time curled up with a full face and a multicolored mop of hair when she volunteered. It shortly caught the eye of their clients.
Tents for the homeless line the streets within the Skid Row group of Los Angeles, April 26, 2021.
She started providing hair and make-up companies herself, which she financed totally together with her personal cash. And though the make-up and hair abilities of her and her crew assist others appear and feel good, she says it is the connections and friendships that maintain her purchasers coming again for extra.
“I actually, actually consider in my coronary heart that it is not the hair coloration or the make-up, I feel it is the time somebody spends with them,” mentioned Raines. “It is the time somebody spends touching them, it is the time somebody spends entertaining them. … Lots of people do not even look within the mirror, ladies!”
Their eyes shine once they step away from the lounge chair. That pleasure heals Raines, however she additionally is aware of that’s not sufficient.
Whereas providing the assistance and help she will be able to, she insists that native officers do the job to deal with systemic issues akin to poverty, dependancy and violence that plague the neighborhood.
Enchancment of the skid row
Skid Row has one of many largest secure homeless folks in the USA, with roughly 3,000 homeless folks on the streets, in accordance with the Metropolis of Los Angeles Neighborhood Redevelopment Company.
It’s a densely populated space; the Neighborhood Redevelopment Company experiences that the neighborhood incorporates roughly 3% of the county’s homeless inhabitants, however makes up solely 0.0001% of the county’s whole land space.
“It is one of the harmful areas in Los Angeles,” mentioned Raines. “It’s thought-about poisonous, it’s thought-about an space that is stuffed with harmful folks and individuals who have been discharged from life.”
However she condemns this understanding of the Skid Row group, a reality that’s evident in her TikTok movies, which she hopes can destroy her viewers’ stereotypes and preconceived notions concerning the homeless.
Kirkpatrick Tyler, director of skid row technique within the mayor’s workplace for public engagement, mentioned work to enhance Skid Row and the dwelling circumstances there was ongoing.
A person walks previous tents that home the homeless on the streets of Los Angeles’ Skid Row group, Jan.
Tyler mentioned psychological well being care, drug abuse rehabilitation, violence and inexpensive housing initiatives are underway that construct on years of makes an attempt to deal with these points. He mentioned the parishioners assist lead the discussions on methods to transfer the town ahead.
“Skid Row is stuffed with vibrant, big-hearted individuals who consider in themselves, who consider in each other, and who’re dedicated to reworking this group,” mentioned Tyler.
“For our workplace, that was really one of many first issues we needed to tackle – that we weren’t going to speak about Skid Row as a downtown space with homelessness, that we have been speaking about Skid Row as a group,” he added.
He mentioned efforts like Raines’ help give people who human connection that makes the neighborhood the group that it’s.
Make pals out of strangers
Each time she palms out meals or works on somebody’s hair, Raines tells her purchasers that she loves them. She by no means anticipated them to reciprocate, however since her son’s loss of life she knew how essential and highly effective these phrases will be.
“I really like you” have been a number of the final phrases she mentioned to her son earlier than he died. Effectively, these phrases are mentioned again to her each time she walks to Skid Row.
Shirley Raines based Magnificence 2 The Streetz after a number of the homeless folks she served began complimenting their hair and make-up.
“It is so humorous once I watch movies that random strangers come as much as my window and say, ‘Okay, I really like you, see you subsequent week.’ I say, ‘Oh, OK, I really like you too,’ “Raines mentioned with fun.” It simply feels good as a result of I understand how onerous it’s to belief when life hasn’t been type to you, folks have not have been type to you. “
And whereas nothing can heal a misplaced kid’s wound, Raines says she finds consolation and leisure in her work. She reminds her viewers to have compassion for folks affected by homelessness – and to provide again as a lot as potential to these in want.
She thanks the numerous donors on social media who’ve already helped her fund the initiative.
“We expect they’re a burden on society, however they don’t seem to be a burden on society. Society is a burden on them,” mentioned Raines. “The purpose in life is to not have as a lot as potential, however the purpose in life is to provide as a lot as potential.”
