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Since 1967, Clausen House has been a pioneer in helping men and women with developmental disabilities become part of the community. The organization began as a residence for women with mental retardation, housed in the former home of industrialist Henry J. Kaiser, at 664 Haddon Road, Oakland. It was named after an Oakland physician, Dr. Edwin Clausen, whose daughter was one of the first participants in the new program. The concept was new at the time, because the residence was in the community, and the women who lived there learned skills that would help them participate more fully in mainstream society. In those days the only existing alternatives to living at home with one's family were the State Hospital system (now called Developmental Centers) or perhaps a board-and-care situation, typically with a poor family trying to supplement its income by taking in persons with disabilities. In either case it was purely custodial care. The Clausen House model was different. By 1975 several residences were established, and an array of skills classes were developed, in partnership with the Oakland Unified School District Adult Education program. In 1976 Clausen House purchased an apartment building and initiated what is now its Independent Living Services, the first of its kind in Northern California. Within five more years Clausen House had established a performing arts troupe, a catering company, and what is now the Supported Employment program. Now in its fourth decade, Clausen House currently serves 180 adults. Only 36 live in the three group homes operated by the agency (spacious older homes in the Adams Point neighborhood of Oakland - two of them historic landmarks). The rest of the clients of Clausen House are served by the Independent and Supported Living programs, the Adult Education and Supported Employment programs, and the ClubHouse, or social recreation program. A milestone was the purchase and renovation of an old furniture store at 650 Grand Avenue, which opened in 2002 as the Clarence J. Woodard Community Center; it is the site for Clausen House's non-residential programs, as well as a meeting place for fellowship and recreational activities on evenings and weekends.