TikTok star Shirley Raines, known for bringing meals and respect to
people on Skid Row, dies at 58
[January 29, 2026]
By REBECCA BOONE
Shirley Raines, a social media creator and nonprofit founder who
dedicated her life to caring for people experiencing homelessness, has
died, her organization Beauty 2 The Streetz said Wednesday. She was 58.
Raines was known as “Ms. Shirley,” to her more than 5 million TikTok
followers and to the people who regularly lined up for the food, beauty
treatments and hygiene supplies she brought to Los Angeles' Skid Row and
other homeless communities in California and Nevada.
Raines' life made an “immeasurable impact,” Beauty 2 The Streetz wrote
on social media.
“Through her tireless advocacy, deep compassion, and unwavering
commitment, she used her powerful media platform to amplify the voices
of those in need and to bring dignity, resources, and hope to some of
the most underserved populations,” the organization said.
Raines' cause of death was not released, but the organization said it
would share additional information when it is available.
Raines had six children. One son died as a toddler — an experience that
left her a “very broken woman,” Raines said in 2021 when she was named
CNN's Hero of the Year.
“It's important you know that broken people are still very much useful,”
she said during the CNN award ceremony.
That deep grief led her to begin helping homeless people.
“I would rather have him back than anything in the world, but I am a
mother without a son, and there are a lot of people in the street that
are without a mother,” she said. “And I feel like it's a fair exchange —
I'm here for them.”
Raines began working with homeless communities in 2017. On Monday,
Raines posted a video shot from inside her car as she handed out lunches
to a line of people standing outside her passenger window. She greeted
her clients with warm enthusiasm and respect, calling them “King,” or
“Queen."
One man told her he was able to get into an apartment.
“God is good! Look at you!” Raines replied, her usual cheerfulness
stepping up a notch. In a video posted two weeks earlier, she handed her
shoes to a barefoot child who was waiting for a meal, protecting the
girl's feet from the chilly asphalt.
California’s homelessness crisis is especially visible in downtown Los
Angeles, where hundreds of people live in makeshift shanties that line
entire blocks in the notorious neighborhood known as Skid Row. Tents
regularly pop up on the pavement outside City Hall. Encampments are
increasingly found in suburban areas under freeway overpasses. A 2025
survey found that about 72,000 people were homeless on any given night
across Los Angeles County.
[to top of second column]
|
This photo provided by Melissa Acedera shows Shirley Raines washing
a person's hair in Skid Row, 2018, in Los Angeles. (Melissa Acedera
via AP)
 Crushow Herring, the art director of
the Sidewalk Project, said Raines was both sentimental and
protective of the homeless community. The Sidewalk Project uses art
and peer empowerment programs to help people experiencing
homelessness in Los Angeles.
“I've been getting calls all morning from people, not just who live
in Skid Row but Angelenos who are shocked” by Raines' death, Herring
said. “To see the work she did, and how people couldn’t wait to see
her come out? It was a great mission. What most people need is just
feeling dignity about themselves, because if they look better, they
feel better.”
Raines would often give people on the street a position working with
her as she provided haircuts or handed out goods, Herring said.
“By the time a year or two goes by, they're part of the organization
— they have responsibility, they have something to look forward to,”
he said. “She always had people around her that were motivational,
and generous and polite to community members.”
Melissa Acedera, founder of Polo's Pantry, recalled joining Raines
every Saturday to distribute food when Beauty 2 The Streetz was
first getting started. Raines remembered people's birthdays and took
special care to reach out to transgender and queer people who were
often on the outskirts of Skid Row, she added.
“It’s hard not to think of Shirley when I’m there,” Acedera said.
In 2025, Raines was named the NAACP Image Award Winner for
Outstanding Social Media Personality. Other social media creators
lauded her work and shared their own grief online Wednesday.
“Ms. Shirley was truly the best of us, love incarnate,” wrote Alexis
Nikole Nelson, a foraging educator and social media creator known as
“blackforager.”
All contents © copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights reserved
 |
