Coronavirus aid for the homeless and small-business tax relief are among items being looked at by city councillors this week, and some are beginning to wonder what the city’s budget and free cash will look like after the Covid-19 toll. Educators, meanwhile, seek to improve students’ remote learning.

The city’s War Memorial Recreation Center will be “up and running” as a homeless shelter by Monday to protect a vulnerable population from getting and spreading coronavirus infections. It was a surprise to residents of the surrounding Mid-Cambridge neighborhood and to the School Committee.  

Public meetings this week look at housing and the homeless, closing streets to nonessential traffic and the need for better Internet instantly in this coronavirus moment. Also: a look, literally, at the proposed school district budget in a virtual workshop.

The city still hasn’t come up with a place where homeless people can isolate themselves if they fall ill with Covid-19, and those who are well don’t have spaces to congregate while staying a safe distance apart. That was the case a week ago and that was the message from officials Monday.

Homeless people in Cambridge rank among the most vulnerable to the coronavirus, but they have no place to practice “social distancing” to avoid illness or “self-isolation” to avoid infecting others. So far city officials trying to prevent the spread of Covid-19 have no answers to that problem.

We can’t all stay home. Some of us have no home to stay at. Many of us don’t have the resources to be able to. No paycheck, no food or rent. If direct-service providers close up shop, people will start dying of hunger, cold and all the other illnesses that follow. 

Public housing tenants had complained that they were encountering more non-residents with addiction problems entering their developments.

The signing of the state budget Wednesday means homeless families will no longer have to stay in places “not meant for human habitation” to become eligible for shelter, a victory for a seven-year mission by state Rep. Marjorie Decker to overturn the policy.

As one of two dozen people taking out nomination papers as of midweek for a City Council run, Jeffery McNary is going a step beyond plans to go door to door: He’s also soliciting conversation by email.

A man was removed from the outdoor toilet in Central Square on Thursday and declared dead shortly afterward, apparently from a drug overdose, police said. The man had a last known residence of East Falmouth, but was believed to be homeless.