Realtor Turns Homeless Man's Life Around After He Returns Lost $10,000 Check

While Connecticut might be the sixth richest state in America, Elmer Alvarez will tell you that it's not all glitz and glamour. 

Homeless for years in the city of New Haven, Alvarez battled drug addiction, mental illness and relied on crime to get by. 

A fortunate find 

One day while roaming the streets of downtown New Haven, Alvarez made a shocking discovery on the floor: A check for a cool $10,000. 

Although it was more zeros than he'd ever seen, Alvarez told CBS that he passed up the easy payday and instead searched for the payee.

"I got to look for this person."

- Elmer Alvarez

"I was just thinking about how that person was feeling by losing an amount of a check like that, an amount of money like that," Alvarez told WTNH. "I'd be feeling kind of desperate."

It turns out that the check belonged to real-estate broker Roberta Hoskie. Although Alvarez wasn't the clean-cut person she envisioned, Hoskie says their lives share much in common.

“He didn’t know whose name was on the check, he didn’t know that at one point I was a single mother, I was at one point on welfare, and one point found myself homeless.”

A redeeming reward

Hoskie recorded her meeting with Alvarez as she presented him with a cash reward.

However, she didn't stop there.

Hoskie found Alvarez a place to live and paid his rent for seven months to help him get back on his feet. She also put him through real estate school and they’re currently working on a project together. They plan to build a transition house for homeless teenagers and adults, with Alvarez serving as an advisor.

Needless to say, it's a cause near and dear to Alvarez.

"I know what it is to be homeless. Nobody deserves to live like that," he said.

Service to others is the rent we pay on earth

Alvarez maintains that seeing Hoskie's reaction when he returned the check would have been reward enough.

“Seeing her happy, seeing her appreciating it, made me feel good," he said.

For her part, Hoskie is in awe of his actions.

"There need to be more people like Elmer Alvarez, he’s a golden heart guy ,he’s a phenomenal guy."

- Roberta Hoskie

Although on the surface they appeared to be from different worlds, Elmer Alvarez and Roberta Hoskie live similar lives. They both live a life of gratitude and service to others and are destined to do great things together.

Just imagine the great things we can accomplish together with a mindset like that.

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