Since the 2009-10 recession, has there been a big increase in people begging and sleeping on the street in the town you live in?

No, seems about the same. 

nah
they have always been there
will probably be there forever
it's where I will be
when I can't work anymore
to pay the rent...

Not sleeping on the street, but definitely begging for handouts has doubled or tripled even.

The increase has been in homeless encampments in green belts and along river beds. Not so much begging outside the inner cities of large metropolitan areas like SF, SD and LA. The CA welfare state provides resources to hide the poverty that would otherwise be blatantly exposed. This post was edited by O-uknow at November 28, 2017 11:40 AM MST

The town where I live has 369 residents but the post office has 3,000 boxes. In winter there might be twenty thousand people in rvs outside of town. So the only place you see anybody on foot is at the post office, and mostly in winter.

In Huddersfield and Leeds near to where I live (in England) there has been a noticeable increase since the recession but especially in the last two years.

"Thank you" to everyone who answered. This post was edited by Reverend Muhammadovsky at November 28, 2017 11:42 AM MST

Just my 2nd cousin---but she's a little wierd anyway.