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Monday, January 16, 2006

And the affluent beggars hoax goes on…

…with well-founded skepticism from the most knowledgeable source of all: their fellow panhandlers:


The panhandlers who work the streets of Ashland are finding donations a bit lacking lately — and they are pinning the blame squarely on a homeless couple whose claim that they make $40,000 per year from street donations was highlighted recently in a Medford newspaper.

The couple in question, Jason Pancoast and Elizabeth Johnson, have three children, bounce from motel to motel in Southern Oregon, and told The Mail-Tribune that on good days, they can make as much as $300.

A man who would identify himself only as "Cliff", age 20, told the Medford paper that the most anyone he knows makes is about $50 a day, and that other homeless people have told him that donations are down since the article appeared.

"I'm pissed off about it," Cliff told the paper.

Others said they were just amazed at the amount of money that Pancoast and Johnson were able to make by begging.

…For his part, Pancoast said he and his wife are lying low for a few days because of all the publicity, staying in an Ashland motel and avoiding any panhandling.

The state Department of Health Services audited the couple's income on Friday, he said. "They were trying to find out if we were making $50,000 a year," he said.

Pancoast, who said the notoriety has been intense, said he's gotten into heated discussions with some people in town.

"A lot of people are freaked out about it," he said, adding that he won't be trying to ask for money in the next few days. "We haven't been collecting anything lately."