ALBANY, N.Y. ( NEWS10 ) — The Albany County Sheriff’s Office started a homeless improvement program in 2020 in an unconventional space — part of the county jail that was no longer in use . For the past few months, another wing has slowly undergone renovations and transformed into more shelter space to help more people.
Carla Johnson, one of the few female residents at S.H.I.P. said, “This is a safe haven.”
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S.H.I.P., which stands for the Sheriff’s Homeless Improvement Program , is located right next to the Albany County Jail. It’s the last place Johnson thought she’d call home.
“As small as it is, it’s still comfortable, and I’m not sleeping outside,” she explained.
Johnson had been homeless for about seven months, but these days, room 229 is where she sleeps. “That, like, changed my life because I was really having a hard time. I was surviving but barely,” said an emotional Johnson. “It was just too much, overwhelming. I was becoming depressed.”