god brought this cat into your life for a purpose, releasing him is not so bad if you do as I suggest and build him his own shelter where he can live near you and on the fringes of your life, you are already his friend, I have a number of feral cat shelters at my house cupboards on the porch and many in my open carports with shelter and food and an occasional petting he will be just fine he just needs to know where hisa next petting is coming from so get together some bartgain 2x4's and some carpet scraps and get someone to fix him his shelter make it big enough so you can set a food dish in there that is just for him, I have feral kittens that live in my house in a crate occasionally and occasionally they have the run of the house eventually they will be neutered and either released or adopted I make shelters for feral and abandoned cats and they really love their houses cats have an independent nature anyhow just as long as he has shelter and food and love it is all he wants, trust me on this