Volunteers dish up food, give free haircuts to homeless in Santa Rosa

Getting a haircut has been a low priority for Jaimie Heric. With three children to feed, her family has been bouncing from shelter to shelter since she and her husband lost their jobs and apartment more than a year ago.

The 28-year-old Santa Rosa High School grad’s thick, auburn tresses reached her waist when she showed up at Juilliard Park on Sunday for what has become a regular makeshift alfresco hair salon for homeless people started by a Santa Rosa beautician.

As a cosmetology student trimmed nearly 12 inches, Heric kept a close eye on her children.

“Hi, pretty girl,” she said to her 6-year-old daughter, who walked up with a fresh bob.

“I know, my love, I hear you,” she said to console her 15-month-old son, overdue for a nap.

Sunday’s “Haircuts for Homeless” event, created by hairdresser Danika O’Leary, has grown from an occasional offering to a regular occurrence precisely for those like Heric: People juggling their own combination of family, unemployment, heartbreak, addiction, mental illness, terrible luck and the high cost of living in Sonoma County.

It all started nearly eight years ago, when O’Leary offered a free haircut to a panhandling young woman with a toddler in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood. O’Leary was early for a concert and the woman accepted her offer.

On her days off, the licensed beautician began bringing her scissors, combs, spray bottles and conditioner and setting up an impromptu free salon at Juilliard Park and other gathering spots for homeless people. At some point, other beauticians started joining her.

On Sunday - after calling out for a volunteer to bring a piece of pie “with whip cream” for a little girl in the barber chair before her - O’Leary said she strongly relates to people who struggle to make ends meet. She and her fiance live in a $900-per-month studio apartment, which is a steal for the area, yet they make significant compromises in order to pay the bills.

“We are all blue-collar people who don’t have a lot to give but our time,” O’Leary said.

The Thanksgiving week event Sunday was O’Leary’s biggest yet, with about 50 volunteers who prepared for weeks helping to hand out hot food, toiletries and clothing. She secured a permit and insurance in order to hold the event in a city park.

A team from Santa Rosa’s Empire College administered flu shots. Along with other volunteer barbers, about a dozen students from Lytle’s Beauty College in north Santa Rosa trimmed and buzzed during the event, which lasted about four hours.

They provided more than 100 haircuts. Volunteers, including Santa Rosa’s Boy Scout Troop 333, served untold pounds of mashed potatoes and meat from at least a dozen turkeys.

Shawn Sepulveda, who organized the food donations, said his family was homeless in Santa Rosa from the time he was nine until he was about 13.

“I was a homeless kid; I was a kid who didn’t have anything,” said Sepulveda, now 33 and the owner of an auto detailing shop, A Perfect Experience, on Todd Road.

“People don’t want a handout - they want a hand up,” he said.

He had already offered to organize a hot meal for O’Leary’s event when he learned that his cousin died, homeless at age 34, under the awning of a downtown Santa Rosa business earlier this month.

“This was for him,” Sepulveda said of his efforts.

Across the lawn, a 25-year-old woman who only gave her first name, Izzy, was digging through piles of clothing to find enough items to replace what was taken from her the day before.

The woman’s belongings were stolen Saturday from a camp near the railroad tracks where she’s been staying for about three weeks. She’s been homeless for “a few years” and has had her belongings stolen before.

“It comes and goes,” Izzy said.

Under a nearby tent, Diana Duran of Santa Rosa handed out the last bag of toiletries she pulled together after weeks of gathering donations.

The anesthesia technician for Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital posted signs, used social media and campaigned as best she could to collect whatever donations her coworkers could provide. She received enough for about 225 bags of toothbrushes, socks, soap, shaving supplies, bandages, granola bars and water.

She made one special bag for a young girl. Her daughter helped supply it with Hello Kitty gear and other items.

Religious organizations have held similar free haircut events in Santa Rosa, but Sunday’s was unique in the collection of friends and friends-of-friends who made it happen. No sermons.

“We’re mostly tattooed young people,” said Duran, who got involved along with other members of a local Urban Rock-A-Bettys pinup social club.

Ali Nelson, a cosmetology student at Lytle’s Beauty College, said volunteering at the event will help her chip away at the 1,600 hours of experience she needs to graduate - but the true value is the gesture of giving someone a nice haircut, a warm meal and some kindness.

“Too many people take this stuff for granted,” Nelson said. “I know I do.”

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.