Shirley Raines, a social media creator and nonprofit who dedicated her life to caring for people experiencing homelessness, has died, her organization Beauty 2 The Streetz said Wednesday. She was 58 years old.
Raines was known as “Mrs. Shirley” to her more than 5 million TikTok followers and to people who regularly lined up for the food, beauty treatments and toiletries she brought to Skid Row in Los Angeles and other homeless communities in California and Nevada.
Reigns’ career has made 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.
Reigns’ cause of death has not been revealed, but the organization said it will share additional information when it is available.
Reigns had six children. One of her sons died when she was a young child — an experience that left her “a very broken woman,” Reigns said in 2021 when she was named CNN’s Hero of the Year.
“It’s important to know that broken people can still be very useful,” she said during the CNN Awards.
This deep sadness prompted her to start helping the homeless.
“I would rather have him back than anything else in the world, but I am a mother without a son, and there are a lot of people on the street without a mother,” she said. “And I feel like it’s a fair exchange, and I’m here for them.”
Raines began working with homeless communities in 2017. On Monday, Rains posted a video filmed from inside her car of her distributing 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 of the men told her he had managed to get into an apartment.
“God is good! Look at you!” Reigns replied, her usual cheerfulness increasing a little. In a video clip posted two weeks ago, she handed her shoes to a barefoot girl who was waiting for a meal, to protect the girl’s feet from the cold asphalt.
California’s homelessness crisis is particularly pronounced in downtown Los Angeles, where hundreds of people live in makeshift shacks lining entire blocks in the notorious neighborhood known as Skid Row. Tents regularly pop up on the sidewalk outside City Hall. Camps are increasingly found in suburban areas under highway bridges. The 2025 survey found that about 72,000 people were homeless on any given night in Los Angeles County.
Crushow Herring, artistic director of the Sidewalk Project, said Raines was passionate 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 taking calls all morning from people, not just from people who live on Skid Row but also from Angelenos who are shocked” by Reigns’ death, Herring said. “To see the work she did, and how people couldn’t wait to see her come out? It was a great job. What most people need is just a sense of dignity about themselves, because if they look better, they feel better.”
Raines would often give people on the street a job working for her where she would cut hair or distribute merchandise, Herring said.
“By a year or two, they become part of the organization — they have responsibility, they have something to look forward to,” he said. “She always had people around her who were motivating, generous and courteous to community members.”
In 2025, Reigns received the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Social Media Personality. Other social media creators praised her work and shared their grief online Wednesday.
“Lady Shirley was truly the best of us, love incarnate,” wrote Alexis Nicole Nelson, a foraging guru and social media creator known as “Blackforager.”
“In shock,” Upworthy wrote. “Thank you for raising so many. May you rest in peace and strength.”