Read the full article by Katerina Graziosi at Sacramento News & Review and at The Sacramento Observer
Dusk falls as Shirley Raines sits at the end of the couch in her North Sacramento Airbnb. Wrapped in an oversized leopard hoodie, she swirls an Old-Fashioned in one hand as she pushes up her glasses to rub her eyes with the other.
She’s tired; she’s served about 800 homeless people this week already. And her work in Sacramento is only just beginning.
As the founder and driving force behind Beauty 2 The Streetz, a nonprofit organization that provides beauty supplies, hygiene and grooming services, food, clothing, and other essentials to the unhoused people of Los Angeles, Las Vegas and San Diego, Raines is gearing up for her first day of service in Sacramento’s homeless community on Feb. 17.
“My plan was never to expand,” Raines says about working outside of Skid Row, the 50-block stretch that sees thousands of homeless people and encampments converge among shelters, hotels and transitional facilities in downtown Los Angeles. “[This] started just accidentally, trying to find a purpose.”