Look Who it Was Random video

UNDERCOVER INVESTIGATION: Panhandling and begging in east Idaho

3,428 views · Published 9 January 2018 · 8:02 · Indexed 14 November 2026

Channel: East Idaho News · 2018 · News & Politics

Watch on YouTube

IDAHO FALLS — What happens when three different people stand on three different street corners and ask you for money?

A lot of rejection, some close calls, some really generous donations, a visit from the police and some unexpected surprises.

More on that in a minute but first, I want you to meet John Perrenoud.

He’s been living on the streets for five years and stands outside the Ammon Walmart nearly every day with a tattered sign asking for cash.

“This corner’s the best corner. A lot of people come in and out of here and you don’t get bothered by the cops so you’re safe,” Perrenoud told EastIdahoNews.com.

Perrenoud said he was born in Arco and his family died so he moved to Idaho Falls. He lives in a makeshift campsite most of the year and survives by panhandling, eating at the soup kitchen and sleeping in shelters on cold nights.

Perrenoud said when people tell him he “should just get a job,” he responds by saying everyone has to survive and he’s been trying to become employed for several months.

It’s hard to know exactly how many men, women and children are homeless in Idaho but the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development estimates 2,247 people were without a home in 2016 with 304 living in east Idaho.

Click here to watch the rest of the story: https://www.eastidahonews.com/2017/09/undercover-investigation-panhandling-in-east-idaho/

More from this channel