I don’t own a business, and assume you understood what I actually wrote.
But let’s say I did own a business. In that case, you’re right to point out that providing a restroom unilaterally would make each business owner worse off. That’s why it would require a tax incentive, not just asking nicely.
The homeless are going to poop somewhere. They don’t have money for pay toilets. Wherever they go will require cleanup, and it’s better for everyone if that’s a restroom than if it’s the sidewalk.
The people doing the abusing here are not the homeless.
Hot take: businesses should have to pay much higher taxes if they don’t have public (including the homeless) restrooms. The default is being allowed to go wherever we want, and now they just expect you to go “somewhere else”.
Where I live, the police only do something about it if they’ve been called multiple times and are annoyed. Which just encourages people to report it immediately instead of when they actually need the noise to stop.