One man from Oklahoma, USA, is using his skills in fixing cars to repair old camper vans and mobile homes for people with no to place to live in.
Ryan Laughlin started his initiative of helping those experiencing homelessness when he and his girlfriend met Chris Butts, as per KFOR on Feb. 8. Butts found himself without a home after raising five kids and ended up living in his Volkswagen Beetle with his dog. Butts had a job and was trying to recover from his situation on his own; he just did not have a home.
“Desperation, depression, there’s a lot of things that go in your mind,” Butts said in the report.
Laughlin and his girlfriend were inspired by Butts’ story upon meeting him, and Laughlin decided to help him get back on his feet by buying and fixing up an old camper for him to temporarily stay in.
“All of them are a little rough, but they’re not awful,” said Laughlin. “Sometimes they just need that little hand, that step, and it’s just really started to turn my heart to want to help these people.”
He said homelessness is not permanent, and people in a similar situation like Butts usually need a temporary place to live in until they can save enough money to get their own home, according to the report.
“I would like to see a small RV park community of usable trailers that people can come in and use, just like this for this specific thing,” added Laughlin.
And for Butts, that “thing” could just be the ticket to change somebody’s life. Today, Butts lives in his own apartment and helps Laughlin around in repairing old campers and mobile homes for those experiencing homelessness. For Butts, it is his way of paying forward the help that Laughlin gave him.
“It’s everything. I mean it’s honestly literally everything to move from nothing to something,” said Butts.
Laughlin has been coordinating with lawyers to ensure the place where the campers are set up is legal, as per the report. He also set up a GoFundMe page last Jan. 26 where people can offer to “rent” a spot in RV parks for $200 a month. This way, it would be easier for those experiencing homelessness to set up their campers since no deposits would be required from them. Laughlin’s previous project was a camper for a woman and her four children who had nowhere to go. The woman, wrote Laughlin, had gone through a divorce. /ra
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