By Hannah Ross

Orange and green tubs of Vaseline, coconut and tea tree oil ring a picnic table at Jack Davis Park in South Oak Park on Aug. 3. Among the spread: wide-tooth combs, bonnets, grease, moisturizers and other essential products for Black hair and skincare that the Community Lead Advocacy Program (CLAP) collects and distributes to homeless communities across Sacramento through its Black Hair & Hygiene Drive.

Zuri K Colbert, CLAP’s founder, and Faye Wilson Kennedy, current chair of the Sacramento Area Black Caucus and co-collaborator of the drives, have been organizing to acquire these essential products “like the Underground Railroad” as Kennedy put it, for over three years, when they identified a key gap in homeless support systems: products specifically for darker skin tones and textured hair. 

Black people make up 33% of Sacramento’s homeless population according to the most recent Point in Time Count, an overrepresentation compared to the 9% stake in Sacramento’s general population. Despite the data, shelters and mobile-shower programs consistently fail to budget for products that cater to Black people, Colbert said. Before founding the organization in 2020, Colbert spent years working in more traditional community health settings.

“[We noticed that] there’s not anything put into place to assure that our predominantly Black, unsheltered community members are getting their needs met that their skin and hair requires,” Colbert said. “They’re not beauty items, they are required in order to maintain our health — skin health and hair health. It’s not like, ‘so cute, you can get your hair done,’ No, if we don’t have lotion, and if we don’t have oil and grease, then our hair can fall out.”

Kennedy echoed similar sentiments, “When people are unhoused, no matter what cultural group they are, they’re oftentimes living in unsanitary conditions. And then if you get scratches or abrasion on your skin … then the person can get really sick from infection. I know sometimes people think we’re being hyperbolic, but it’s not. … It’s a preventative health issue.”

Kennedy attributes the lack of specialized products in shelters to a lack of knowledge of these products as health necessities, an absence of Black folks working in shelters, and the price of the products, often higher than those for non-Black skin and non-texturized hair. 

“When we attend events and bring [these products], they’re the first to go, no matter what the event is … that’s how much of a need they are,” Colbert said.  “They’re so expensive and specific to our needs that they’re always grabbed up.” 

Thus far, Colbert and Kennedy have distributed donations to South Sacramento Hart, and at events with Feed Sacramento Homeless and the CMB Neighbor Program. 

In March, Colbert and Kennedy decided to seek more public support for their organizing efforts by soliciting public donations through their Black Hair & Hygiene Drives. Pending more collaborators and community partners to help with collection and distribution, they hope to run drives in South Sacramento, North Sacramento and Florin on a monthly or quarterly basis.

At their most recent drive on Aug. 3, community members from Natomas, Del Paso Heights and South Oak Park, Sacramento City Councilmember Eric Guerra, Sacramento District 5 Director Michael Benjamin II, and residents of the Next Move Homeless Services shelter gathered to collect and share resources at the drive and ice cream social. 

Carrie Jeter has been homeless for two years. She attended CLAP’s drive with her daughter and other members of Next Move Homeless Services program, citing community-driven resources as key supplements to her limited income. 

“We’ve got school events coming up, you know, I wouldn’t be able to afford all this right now and still be able to live every day,” Jeter said. Her daughter will be starting 6th grade in the Elk Grove School District in a few weeks. “It’s important for her to be like, ‘I got my hair done, I’m ready for school.’ Her mental health is important.” 

After a yoga mat raffle, a peruse through CLAP’s flyers of local resources, and a much-needed break from the heat with ice cream, shade and water, Jeter and other attendees left the drive with bags of products like Cantu conditioners, headbands, and curl creams.

CLAP’s long-term goals are to solidify budget requirements for these products in shelters citywide.

“We can do community care, but it can’t just be groups that are filling in those gaps when we can, they should already be implemented,” Colbert said. “The city and county budgets are being spent on over-monitoring and over-criminalizing our impoverished instead of following a moral blueprint. That’s what a budget is, it’s what you put your money into, what you care about and what is important to you. So when those gaps aren’t being filled, we have to be realistic. We’re not going to be able to do this on our own, there needs to be policy and demands put into place so that our county and city step up.”

This story is part of the Solving Sacramento journalism collaborative. Solving Sacramento is supported by funding from the James Irvine Foundation and James B. McClatchy Foundation. Our partners include California Groundbreakers, Capital Public Radio, Outword, Russian America Media, Sacramento Business Journal, Sacramento News & Review, Sacramento Observer and Univision 19.