TikTok star Shirley Raines, known for bringing meals and respect to people on Skid Row, dies at 58

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 announced Wednesday. She was 58 years old.

Raines was known as “Ms. Shirley” to her more than 5 million TikTok followers and to the people who regularly waited in line to get food, beauty treatments and hygiene products that she brought to Skid Row in Los Angeles and other homeless communities in California and Nevada.

Raines’ life had an “immeasurable impact,” Beauty 2 The Streetz wrote on social media.

“Through her tireless advocacy, deep compassion and unwavering commitment, she has 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 has not been released, but the organization said it will share additional information as it becomes available.

Raines had six children. A son died when she was a child — 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 that you know that broken people are still very useful,” she said during the CNN awards ceremony.

This deep grief led her to start helping the homeless.

“I would prefer him to come back more than anything in the world, but I am a mother without a son and there are a lot of people on the street who are motherless,” 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 customers with enthusiasm and respect, calling them “King” or “Queen.”

A man told him he was able to enter an apartment.

“God is good! Look at you!” » Raines replied, his usual cheerfulness increasing a notch. In a video posted two weeks earlier, she handed her shoes to a barefoot child waiting for a meal, protecting the girl’s feet from the cold asphalt.

California’s homeless crisis is particularly visible in downtown Los Angeles, where hundreds of people live in makeshift shacks that line entire blocks of the famous neighborhood known as Skid Row. Tents regularly appear on the sidewalk in front of city hall. Encampments are increasingly found in suburban areas, under highway overpasses. A 2025 survey found that approximately 72,000 people were homeless each night in Los Angeles County.

Crushow Herring, the artistic 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 those who live in Skid Row, but Angelenos who are shocked” by Raines’ death, Herring said. “Seeing the work she did and how excited people were to see her come out? It was a big mission. What most people need is just to feel dignity in their own skin, because if they look better, they feel better.”

Raines often offered people on the street a position to work with her as she gave them haircuts or handed out merchandise, Herring said.

“After a year or two, they are part of the organization – they have responsibilities, they have something to look forward to,” he said. “She always had people around her who were motivating, generous and polite to members of the community. »

Melissa Acedera, founder of Polo’s Pantry, remembers joining Raines every Saturday to hand out food when Beauty 2 The Streetz was first starting. 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 an NAACP Image Award winner for Outstanding Social Media Personality. Other social media creators praised her work and shared their own heartbreak online Wednesday.

“Ms. Shirley was truly the best of us, love personified,” wrote Alexis Nikole Nelson, a foraging educator and social media creator known as “blackforager.”