Under Scott Walker, Homelessness Increased a Dramatic 5.5%, while nation saw 4% Decline.

Nothing says “it’s working” more than seeing a huge rise in homelessness? 

With thanks to former Gov. Jim Doyle's efforts, Scott Walker’s first year in office saw the continued  decrease in homelessness after the Great Recession. But since then, and under Walker’s austere policies to wean Wisconsinites off government programs, homelessness is rising to near Great Recession levels again. Real presidential stuff here.

4% Down Nationally, 5.5% Rise in Wisconsin: Walker is always bragging about his low unemployment numbers, but what about the uncounted unemployed who've given up the search?

WPR: Figures released by the federal government show that homelessness is falling on a national scale, but that's not the case in Wisconsin. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development found that since 2011, homelessness has gone down about 4 percent nationally. In Wisconsin, however, it's gone up 5.5 percent.

Steven Schooler, the executive director of Porchlight said, “For those folks that really were at the lower end of the ... socio-economic strata, they never really did recover. The jobs that have been created really didn't cover those folks. As we know, there are a lot of folks that just have given up looking for work,” Schooler said … that's why he's seeing a continued rise in homelessness.

With cuts to food stamps and new requirements meant to purposely drop recipients, Walker has only made things worse:

At Milwaukee's Hope House, executive director Ken Schmidt said food stamp cuts have brought more people to the shelter, since a family's housing budget now goes towards food. “I mean, there's only so much money. Having less money with food stamps does hurt that household budget,” he said.

Food stamp cuts are also a major part of Paul Ryan’s plan to attack the poor:

Many homeless shelters are receiving less federal and state funds and some officials say that money will continue to decline.