Posted on 01/13/2006 11:14:39 AM PST by ApplegateRanch
Couple fend off public ire following news article
ASHLAND — Sudden notoriety and public condemnation have surprised an Ashland couple who make a living as panhandlers and refer to themselves as "affluent beggars."
Jason Pancoast and Elizabeth Johnson, who have three children, think the public has been taken aback by their unconventional image of a well-fed, well-dressed family that lives off the streets.
"What has happened is that we’re going along with a lifestyle that you couldn’t imagine we should have," said 34-year-old Pancoast.
A story in Sunday’s Mail Tribune about the couple, who sometimes make up to $300 a day and once made $800, triggered an outcry from local residents and sparked the interest of national media.
People in downtown Ashland have yelled at Pancoast and threatened him since the story was published, he said.
Angry e-mails and letters to the Mail Tribune and freelance writer Jennifer Margulis have described the couple as tax evaders, bad role models for their children, "common thieves" and abusers of a food stamp program designed to help people temporarily down on their luck. Pancoast and Johnson said they receive $500 a month in food stamps.
Local radio talk shows have spent airtime taking calls about Pancoast and Johnson, and the couple appeared this week on a Portland radio show. Fox News also expressed interest in interviewing them.
Instead of the usual image of the homeless begging for money to buy alcohol or drugs, Pancoast and Johnson are relatively clean-cut and use their money to get a safe place for their children to sleep, a warm meal and good clothes, they said.
"We’re challenging the stereotype of being a beggar," said 30-year-old Johnson.
But former Ashland mayor and local businessman Alan DeBoer, who gave Johnson $200 before Christmas, said that after learning more about the couple, he believes they are conning people — even using their 3-month-old baby as a prop.
DeBoer said he now regrets his generosity toward Johnson and would not give her any more money.
"I wouldn’t," he said. "I may never give anybody a dime again."
DeBoer said he would prefer to give donations to local organizations such as ACCESS Inc. that screen their clients. "They have the training to verify this stuff," he said.
He gave the money to Johnson after she gave what he thought was an "eloquent" speech at an affordable housing committee meeting.
DeBoer said begging has become so commonplace that you find people at almost every freeway off-ramp.
"You almost have to make panhandling in Oregon illegal," he said.
Pancoast, who estimates he and his wife can make $30,000 to $40,000 a year panhandling, said he doesn’t understand why someone with the kind of wealth and influence of DeBoer would begrudge him from using the money to keep his family safe.
He said the rich in the country have certain expectations of the homeless that are vastly different from the way he tries to live.
He said that he and his wife have no assets and are currently living in an Ashland motel. The couple were staying at another local motel, but the manager asked them to leave because of negative publicity, Pancoast said.
The couple say they stay in motels because it is difficult for a family with no consistent income and three children to find housing.
Pancoast, who is outspoken in many of his beliefs, said Ashland is being run more and more by the rich who can’t tolerate different lifestyles.
Pointing to the expensive homes on the hills surrounding town, he said, "Is this community theirs or is it ours?"
He said DeBoer could do more for the homeless if he found a solution to the affordable housing problem locally.
Pancoast, who admits he has a different perspective on reality than most, said he would like to get a job and stop living off the street.
"Ultimately it may seem like a cakewalk, but it takes a lot of energy to deal with it," he said. "We have to stay on the run usually."
Pancoast and Johnson said getting jobs would mean sacrificing time with their children.
Patty Claeys, chief executive officer of ACCESS, said all parents would love to stay home with their children, but the reality is that most people have to work to support their family.
While she applauds the couple for apparently taking care of their children, she said, "As long as people live in that kind of lifestyle, what are they teaching their children?"
She said ACCESS could help the couple find a house, but they would have to show some kind of income.
Claeys thinks the couple would be better off getting a job, and because of their large family they would pay little in taxes.
However, because some people have difficulty fitting into a job situation, she said, "I almost feel they would be more successful if they called that (panhandling) their business and paid taxes on it. That way they could legitimize what they are doing and have something to show for it."
Claeys said many of the people begging for money never come to her organization looking for help.
During her 15 years working there, Claeys has passed her business card out to the homeless who stand on street corners asking for money. She has instructed her staff to let her know if someone has shown her business card.
"In all these times no one has come in and asked for food and shown my business card," she said.
Johnson, who said she has unsuccessfully tried to get housing through ACCESS, said she would like to have a more stable lifestyle for her family.
Pancoast said, "All we want is housing so I can pursue other ways of functioning without wondering where my family is."
Reach reporter Damian Mann at 776-4476, or e-mail dmann@mailtribune.com.
I wouldn't sit at my keyboard waiting for a ping. (Of course, as a freeper you do that anyway.) The IRS would first have to send them a letter to notify them or ask about their tax return or some such. Where would they send it? Another good reason for them to keep on the move. Hmmmm. I wonder how they get their foodstamps?
Reminds me of the Christmas Carol sung by Larry the Cable Guy
Get a job you
Bum bum bum bum
Money don't grow on trees you
Bum bum bum bum
I remember one guy whose routine was to claim that he just needed a couple of bucks to get a token so he could take MARTA across town to some shelter that would take him in. Instead of a quarter, I gave him a token. He about pitched it at my head. lol
Unless dancing nude in your front yard is your unconventional life style.
"...Pancoast and Johnson..."
Are these two parasites married? If not, they're immoral currs to boot. What kind of example are they giving to the children? They should be in jail instead of the motel.
Interesting contrast - My wife and grand daughter had just left a Hardee's drive thru and came across an "I'll work for food" pan handler. They gave him a bag of burgers and he cried. Then sat down on the curb and ate them.
It's not Nude, it's Sky Clad!
Thanks to this story, more people know what sort of social drifters we have in the Pacific Northwest. I try not to judge a book by it's cover, but I can assure you that this couple are a pair of neo-hippie acidheads that have just got to be frying on a regular basis in front of their children. Before blaming California culture, remember that neither of these two are native Californians or Oregonians, but they've migrated here from the East Coast because here's where a haven has been made for the majority of glassy-eyed acidhead drifters in the USA.
I remember fuelling my truck in a gas station in San Francisco where a clattering station wagon with Texas plates and junk and trash filling the windows up to the roof pulled up next to me. The driver with tattoos on his neck leaned over and asked me where the nearest public park was, and I gave him directions that would take him across the Bay Bridge into Oakland so it would cost him several bucks to get back, and therefore hopefully not at all. In short order, he'd certainly sell his car for drug money, commit violent crimes, be in and out of jail, waste away to drug-fueled insanity and probably croak after costing the city services $150,000 in caring for him until he expires. Once they're on the street, they're doomed within ten years if they continue on their destructive course. San Francisco spends $225,000,000 (Yes, a quarter billion dollars) a year on public services related to the homeless, and all it does is increase the population of bums.
Give it enough time to track this couple of self-styled losers, and I expect that they too will get into trouble somehow, spend time in jail, lose their kids, and become part of the destitute homeless living on the streets in San Francisco. Oregon is too cold and wet, and San Francisco is far too generous to deranged acidheads like these. They'll move south down to here, probably sooner rather than later considering that they've been exposed and won't find themselves as tolerated as they used to be.
Well, "they" are contributing to the economy and paying taxes. You are just takers - with a chip on your shoulder, it seems
Palm Beach Co FL is criticized, by some, for being too hard on homeless. We have about 200 living in the woods. No doubt the people create the problems by the way they act. Don't throw money at panhandlers and they go away, but they won'e come here.
There are more of them out there than most people think. Nrxt time you see someone begging at a traffic light, especially if it is raining, look at their shoes, the kind of jacket they wear, the overall condition of their clothing, Likely as not, they are better dressed than you are.
I wonder where that little girl got her blonde hair.?!?
LOL! Yep. Okie let me know. :)
Thank you. :)
Just think. All the more time to panhandle since the motel's housekeepers are doing the cleaning.
Exactly what I'm thinking.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.