A lot of these stories are about, 2 or 3 streets, generally some dense blocks in the core of downtown that either have homeless services nearby or are tourist areas where you can panhandle succesfully.

No city has hundreds of streets and thousands of blocks just full of human shit. It happens in high traffic/high visibiilty areas due to poverty, the lack of accesable public bathrooms and drug use in the US, and even then, is minimal. Social media and right wing hysteria pump up minimal issues into quipy mania.