The mentally ill are bussed one way from one place to the other and that's probably the only roof they feel welcome under. Countries with much more appalling social standards provide the means to be sheltered, often for a reduced fee and the owners still make a profit. We're talking fly-a-sign-for-an-hour cheap. There is no reason people should be shitting in stores, even in San Francisco.

Give homeless people a stipend and fucking closet in an abandoned retail bank dereliction to sleep in. Police it and nowhere else and I guarantee the mental illness problem will virtually disappear. Crime will be all Dukes of Hazard JUST LIKE IT SHOULD BE.

I don't want to live in a world the doesn't shelter its own, or one that over polices every little thing. Bleeding heart politics from both sides always leads to a J-Curve in this kind of behavior, but it doesn't have to, the powers that be just want a reason to police people to death with kewl technology because they're boring and shitty people without a sense of adventure.