Brief History
- Works in the U.S. assisting communities to end homelessness
- Supports HUD’s Disaster Response and Recovery efforts
- Facilitated implementation of HMIS in the U.S. and Canada
- Supported mergers of HMIS between multiple Continua of Care (CoC)
- Implemented and managed HMIS in New Orleans from 2002-2006
- Provided substance abuse treatment services to youth and individuals on probation
- Advocated for clients at one of the largest Domestic Violence shelters in the U.S.
Fran Ledger is a Senior Program Specialist for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in the Office of Special Needs Assistance Programs (SNAPS). Their work is focused on homeless data policies, initiatives, and technical resources that support stakeholders in understanding the nature of homelessness, community efforts, and resource investments to prevent and end homelessness. Mx. Ledger is a subject matter expert in Homeless Management Information Systems (HMIS) and a lead in Disaster Recovery for SNAPS. They also serves as a Desk Officer for the State of New Jersey. Before coming to HUD, Mx. Ledger spent 17 years in the social service field, advocating and providing direct assistance to individuals and families, responding to communities in crisis, and building information technology solutions for local governments, foundations, and non-profit organizations, both nationally and internationally.
Previous Work
Technical Assistance: Mx. Ledger provided technical assistance to CoCs on behalf of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Primarily, they focused on the development of strategies to end homelessness, and the use of data to inform policy decisions and drive program change. As a member of HUD’s National Technical Assistance Team, Mx. Ledger has presented, trained, informed and developed HUD guidance, toolkits, reports, documents and training materials on Disaster Planning and Recovery, Governance, Accountability, Coordinated Entry, HMIS Data and Technology Projects, and Privacy Regulation and Practices. They have developed and delivered trainings on HUD CoC and ESG program eligible activities and compliance with other statutory requirements.
Disaster Planning, Response, and Recovery: Mx. Ledger provided expertise on HUD’s Disaster Technical Assistance Project, serving CoCs and supporting HMIS implementations in critical disaster recovery efforts, including 2016 flooding in Louisiana, 2012 Hurricane Sandy and 2005 Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. As part of HUD’s Disaster Technical Assistance team, Mx. Ledger has responded to more than 80 Continua of Care impacted by Presidentially Declared Disasters or serious natural and man-made disasters from 2006 to the present. They have provided recommendations and guidance concerning the use of HUD and FEMA program resources for recovery from Presidentially declared disasters and emergencies.
System Administration: Mx. Ledger worked for five years as a System Administrator, implementing the Orleans/Jefferson, LA Parish HMIS for UNITY of Greater New Orleans, and providing project management and technical support to over 60 social service projects in the greater New Orleans area.
Event Planning: Mx. Ledger co-produced several large events and national conferences over the last seven years. From pre-planning to day-of management, they have coordinated all aspects, including hotel RFP, site selection, hotel and AV contracting, budgeting, plenary and session programming, communication and ticketing, website content and day-of activities. Event attendance has ranged from 200 to 3000 participants.
Skills
- Facilitating disparate stakeholders to make difficult collaborative choices
- Developing materials to support HUD policy implementation and build resiliency in communities
- Supporting stakeholder collaboration in disaster planning and recovery for at-risk populations
- Providing both remote and on-the-ground disaster planning and recovery technical assistance
- Improving the quality and usability of data for planning and evaluation
- Coordinating large-scale, cross-organizational projects from work plan development to the delivery of goals
Select Documents
Development Team Member for the Disaster Preparedness to Promote Community Resilience: Introduction to Promoting Community Resilience and the Disaster Preparedness to Promote Community Resilience: Toolkit and Appendices.
Primary author of “System Performance Improvement Briefs: COC Data Quality.” To help communities better manage their data quality, and to assist Continuums of Care (CoCs) and HMIS Leads in implementing their Data Quality Plan, SNAPS released this brief, focused on all aspects of data quality, including completeness, accuracy, timeliness, and consistency.
Co-author of Send Red Not Blue: The Homeless Resident. Report contributes to understanding the experiences of homeless individuals and families surviving and recovering from a disaster.
Co-author of Equal Access for Transgender People: Supporting Inclusive Housing and Shelters, Equal Access Self-Assessment for Shelters and Projects, Equal Access Decision Tree, and Equal Access Expectation: Training Scenarios for Use with Project Staff. Materials help homeless service providers adopt LGBT inclusive federal requirements and best practices.
Supported production of the “The Community Recovery Playbook: A Guide for Using Community Development Block Grants for Disaster Recovery” NY-NJ-CT-PA Housing Recovery Program. Playbook is designed to streamline the process of post-disaster housing recovery.
Select Presentations
“Data Quality Institute” National Human Services Data Consortium, April 25, 2017, Salt Lake City, UT
“Challenges and Solutions for Collecting Comprehensive Data on Homelessness in Rural Communities” with Ryan Burger and Chris Pitcher, ICF, National Human Services Data Consortium, October 14, 2016, New Orleans, LA
“Coordinated Entry: Key Components for Success” Louisiana State Housing and Homeless Conference, April 14, 2016, Baton Rouge, LA
“Opportunities and Risks to Homeless Services: Using HMIS and the CoC to Plan, Respond and Recover from Emergencies and Disasters” National Human Services Data Consortium, April 16, 2015, Denver, CO
“Building Community Resilience Amid Social Marginalization: Homeless and Other At-Risk Populations” (Panel) Advancing and Redefining Communities for Emergency Management Conference, December 10-11, 2-14, Los Angeles, CA
This website was prepared or accomplished by Fran Ledger in their personal capacity. The opinions expressed on this website are the author’s own and do not reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or the United States government.
