Perhaps better than openly pissing and pooping on a city sidewalk in broad daylight. But I spent nearly six years homeless and never did that.

In the city, you can find proper bathrooms. Big cities sometimes have public bathrooms open 24 hours and with an attendant. San Diego had at least two that I knew of.

You can also use the library bathroom if you haven't been banned from the library by staff for behaving badly. There are bathrooms at homeless services. There are bathrooms in malls, grocery stores, homeless services, etc.

If you aren't in the big city, if you are camped in a patch of woods, you poop and pee in the bushes. It's vastly more sanitary than a port-a-potty. If you grew up in a semi-rural environment with a culture of folks who did things like go hunting in the woods, relieving yourself in the bushes isn't a weird idea at all. It's only in recent years that anyone seems to think it is. It certainly wasn't when I was growing up.

Thanks for the explanation. One of the things I hear about SF is the public pooping, so assumed that was a large part of the problem.