Intro
@creationlayer here. Well this all started as an experiment, taking a homeless guy and giving him some steem power for his engine. I didn't really know Brook, he was a guy with a sign asking for a dollar. I gave him a dollar. Today he offered me a hundred, I honestly held it for a second, but said hey get me a coffee, and I've 3x'd my dollar. You can look through the previous posts to see the progress. I told his story and you responded. Today I feel like we've succeeded in helping a man, who didn't need help but wanted it. I'm grateful that as I got to know him he had plans, and knew how he could spend the money to get to his goals. Well I'm happy to say he is in the process of acquiring a motor home to live in, and researching a place north of silicon valley where the lot fees are affordable. This is all thanks to steemit. I plan to continue working on updates, and I'm sure what Brook has received will get him a home. Ideally steemit can be his job too but we're not there yet. We're not done yet, and all support helps but I expect in a couple weeks to a month he'll be setup, and the local rates for lot fees on rv's are $1,000 so we're looking at Humboldt county where there might be rates around $200. Any support helps and we will keep the generous supporters updated.
Today
So I went to the bank (yuck). I had to set one up just for this. I'm a Bitcoin guy, I won't bore you with my gripes. My existing bank simple does not hand you cash. I shaved put on a blazer so they thought I was official. Brook said I looked like some startup guy that has no boss, I laughed, basically true. I requested $4500 he was nice, but said it's above my limit. A manager approved and they counted the 45 $100 bills twice in their machine counter. I headed over to a Starbucks to meet with Brook. I think he still thought I might scam him. I handed him the envelop and he just nodded and we did a bro fist.
We did a little research on RV lots at Starbucks, thanks for the free coffee by the way ;)
We attempted a selfie, I think the light was in his eyes.
Finally getting the cash to haggle for an RV on craigslist meant a lot to Brook, but he has an eye on a near free one that he can fix up. He previously was a mechanic on motorcycles, so he's going thrifty just how I like it, and he said if he had a place of his own he'd get a German Shepard to hangout with.
I asked him to share his thoughts now that he's basically on the verge of not being homeless because of this crazy steemit thing
Note to community about charity
As a community we should be transparent. If we're going to donate we donate. This for me was an eye opening experience, but I don't know if I'll pursue something bigger. For me it was basically my first real interaction with steemit. I hope more people can come forward and find ways to help others, in honest and fair ways. If I come up with an idea to help a broad group I might consider, but it takes time and hard work to get to know people and find out how you can actually help and not just throw money at the problem. Steemit DOES change lives, but we must be skeptical and demand that those promoting help plan to follow through. I'm no saint, I'm just one who thinks if you start something you should follow through. If this inspires you to help I'm happy for that, and hope you understand throwing money at someone/something is not the solution. You must get to know the situation, work with the people, and become an adviser and student of the cause.
Transparent Budget
At first I really didn't know how far this would go or what steemit was. I assumed we would have some success. Well we did so I set Brook up with a hotel room, food, clothes, and a computer. We may have spent too much early, but it all went towards positive things.
Total Proceeds after conversion: $7090.151 (original SBD amount $8275.159)
Costs
Computer- $647.62
Clothes, deodorant, essentials - $371.41
Gas- $57.59
Groceries (+100 gift card) - $268.37
Hotel- $968.33
remaining balance -
$4776.831
Cash given to Brook: $4500
Remaining balance owed - $276.831 (if I get 1 to 1 conversion on SBD.)
Conversion details
$5758.008 SBD was converted to 8.06859782 BTC (.93 cents at the time before Bitcoin drop) which I held, I converted my own cash directly from my bank account at current market rate to Brook. Unfortunately everyone was affected by the market, and I don't use bitfinex so that's good. So with the market decrease it resulted in $4,573, a shame we all took a hit. The additional 2517.15100000 SBD is on the exchange and not sold due to volatility. I converted this 1 to 1 for Brook and will wait for good SBD price. I am looking at a Bitcoin debit card for the steem power so I can load it remotely as he is moving hours north from me.
Thank You