The only way to enable homeless people to have toilets to use and avoid harassment by thugs is to require businesses to allow non-customers to use toilets.

It is not only the homeless that will benefit from this. Every pedestrian will occasionally need to use a toilet. Sometimes I have found myself on the street with hands sticky from eating a fruit, and couldn't find a place I could wash them. The YMCA showed how committed it is to charity by refusing to let me use a sink.

The objections that businesses might have are selfish and callous, and not worth even considering.

I've advocated this for a long time.