ALBANY COUNTY — “Housing is health care,” said Liz Hitt, executive director of The Homeless and Travelers Aid Society.

“If you don’t have some place to live, how do you socially distance? How do you isolate? How do you wash your hands?” she asked.

Hitt spoke at Friday’s county press briefing, along with County Department of Social Services Commissioner Michele McClave, about how people without homes have fared and been helped during the coronavirus pandemic.

About $1 million came into the city of Albany in March, Hitt said, which was divided among homeless shelters, outreach programs, housing, and hotlines — all of which she termed “grassroots providers.”

She also said that private funding came from the United Way and the Community Foundation to help meet the needs of staff during a “very challenging” time.

HATAS is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1927 with the mission of ending homelessness within Albany County and the Capital Region.

“The homeless tend to be very vulnerable to COVID and that’s because there’s a good percentage of them that are older and also have pre-existing conditions — diabetes, heart problems as well as issues with substance abuse and mental health and behavioral issues,” said McClave, who has a master’s degree in social work.

The county contracts with seven year-round shelters and two Code Blue shelters, typically used in cold weather, said McClave. The contracted shelters together have over 400 beds. The Code Blue shelters are usually closed in April but this year, because of the pandemic, they stayed open through June.

All the shelters follow guidelines put out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, she said.

“They worked really hard to implement CDC guidelines for homeless shelters” — mask-wearing and social-distancing is followed by both staff and clients, she said.

Also, rather than gathering for meals, shelter residents have been served boxed meals, which they can eat individually. And, McClave went on, instead of sleeping head to head, they sleep head to toe.

The shelters are cleaned daily after the clients leave, she said. Temperatures are taken when someone walks through the door and, if someone has a fever or shows other symptoms typical of COVID-19, that person is tested and quarantined in a motel for two weeks.

The county’s Department of Social Services housed 64 homeless people in motels during 14-day quarantine periods.

The county, McClave said, also worked with the New York State Department of Corrections as some of the prisoners who were released early to prevent COVID-19 had no homes to go to.

“One of our goals is to prevent homelessness,” said McClave. The county’s Department of Social Services provides benefits to keep people in their homes, she said. Or, if they are forced out, the department will help them move to a new place.

McClave also said, “We’re very concerned when the moratorium is lifted on evictions on Aug. 20 what will happen. There’s a lot of people I know in the queue for evictions. It’s very concerning to the community about the number of people who are going to need assistance when that happens.”

On Wednesday night, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order to allow state housing courts to continue the pause on evictions as they have done throughout the pandemic. The moratorium extension is for 30 days.

“During the moratorium, we’ve seen a reduction in homeless families so that’s been a really great thing,” said McClave. “We want to keep it that way.”

Hitt said, “No one agency can respond to this type of crisis.”

She remembers the first call, early in the pandemic, that came in from a local hospital, which had tested a homeless person that needed to be placed. “We immediately connected with the Department of Social Services,” said Hitt, recalling the conversation with McClave and her team, which ultimately ended with the person being placed in a local motel.

“Without a functioning partnership … people will die,” said Hitt. She counted out on her fingers some of the many agencies and groups that had worked together in the crisis besides her own and McClave’s: Albany County Mental Health, the Interfaith Partnership, for the Homeless, the Capital City Rescue Mission, Catholic Charities, St. Catherine’s Center for Children, the Albany Police Department, the county sheriff’s office — “and many more.”

Hitt also praised HATAS’s outreach van that travels city streets from 2 to 10 p.m. each day, with staff working one-to-one with the unsheltered homeless.

“We’ve seen a 47 percent increase in the unsheltered homeless,” she said, between July 2019 and July 2020.

“Some people simply feel that they would rather be on the street than in a shelter,” said Hitt. “That doesn’t mean that they’re not seeking meals, showers, and other services … It just means they’re sleeping on the street.”

Calling the increase “dramatic,” Hitt said, “We’re bringing on as many housing units as we can as rapidly as possible.”

Portable toilets were placed around Albany during the pandemic. “There are some very real needs,” said Hitt as businesses, libraries, and not-for profits closed down.

She said of the portable toilets, “That’s an absolute basic need that must be met.” Hitt said she was thankful the county has set them up and noted her organization had recently taken responsibility for them.

Finally, she commended the staff who work with homeless people, getting them to follow coronavirus protocols for the sake of their own safety as well as others’.

“Since Day One, it’s been handled with a great deal of compassion …,” said Hitt. “Overwhelmingly, the vast majority complied because they did want to come in, they did want that meal.”