Margot Ackermann Receives Housing Leadership Award at 2023 Virginia Governor’s Housing Conference

Margot has a unique ability to combine technical expertise and a deep commitment to the dignity of all people experiencing homelessness and housing instability. As Homeward’s Research and Evaluation Director, she is often immersed in spreadsheets and databases and loves using data to answer questions.

Since 2007, Margot has worked to make federally required data collection efforts more user-friendly and relevant for program delivery and funding allocations. She has influenced the field of homeless service practitioners to invest in the ability to collect and analyze program data in order to continually improve and enhance how the greater Richmond region tackles the crisis of homelessness.

Margot’s work is central in supporting more than 200 local practitioners in the Richmond area and an additional 100 practitioners around the Commonwealth to serve more than 8,000 individuals experiencing or at risk of homelessness over the course of the year, each year.

She also is a champion of collaboration and recognizes that when we work together, we can have a bigger impact. Beyond the coordinated network of homeless service providers in the Richmond region and three other Continuums of Care, Margot has engaged with other systems of care including community criminal justice, healthcare providers, and state agencies including the state Medicaid program. These analyses and data matching projects have engaged healthcare practitioners and hospital systems and local justice system partners to coordinate referrals for people who are most likely to experience repeated episodes of homelessness and housing instability.

Most notably, Margot centers and uplifts our neighbors pushed into homelessness to ensure that everyone in Virginia has a safe place to call home. Her ability to incorporate and integrate person-centered data that both meets regulatory requirements and amplifies the voices of marginalized populations has transformed how Virginia and local public and private agencies work together to understand the needs of Virginians facing homelessness and housing instability. She has raised the bar for data-driven decision-making while making it possible for local homeless assistance agencies and our public sector partners to reach the raised bar.

Check out this great Q&A with Margot from October 2022 to learn more about her work and how it has evolved over the years.

We also love this video, shown at the Governor’s Housing Conference, about Margot’s impact in helping to solve homelessness in Central Virginia.

Everyone at Homeward is grateful for Margot’s tireless commitment to our mission and inspired by her work. Congratulations to Margot for being the first person honored with the Housing Leadership Award!