Washington, D.C., March 4, 2025—David Hansell, Chair of the CLASP Board of Trustees issued the following statement today:

The Board of Trustees, Staff, and Alumni of the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) mourn the loss of Alan Houseman who passed away on February 26, 2025, after a brief illness.

Alan’s legacy at CLASP is unparalleled. He served as the organization’s executive director for a remarkable 32 years, joining in 1981 (only 12 years after the organization’s founding) and retiring in 2013. He built a strong, vital organization that transformed the lives of millions of people with low incomes.

“With Alan at the helm, CLASP was an acknowledged leader in the fight to combat poverty and injustice. Under his leadership, CLASP provided crucial guidance to executive branch and congressional staff, as well as to like-minded organizations, and helped develop the next generation of advocates.” 

— Joe Onek, Former CLASP Executive Director & Board Chair; Current CLASP Trustee

During his tenure, Alan led CLASP’s efforts to strengthen and preserve the Legal Services Corporation, which funds local legal services offices across the country to ensure people with low incomes have access to quality representation. An outspoken advocate for legal aid as a tool for fighting poverty, he co-authored a definitive report: Securing Equal Justice for All: A Brief History of Civil Legal Assistance in the United States.

“Alan was a visionary leader and champion in the legal services community.  He was one of the first presidents of the Legal Services Corporation, a nonprofit corporation created by Congress to assure people with low incomes have access to civil legal assistance in America.  Through his work at CLASP, he provided counsel and guidance to legal services programs during pivotal times when Congressional restrictions sought to limit how legal services lawyers could represent their clients.” 

— LaVeeda Morgan Battle, Former CLASP Board Chair; Current CLASP Trustee

He also set CLASP on its course as a leading advocate for families and children—fighting for improved child support systems, federal welfare reform, expanded child care and early education, and comprehensive job training and education programs.

While the political climate in Washington, D.C. grew more contentious over time, Alan established CLASP’s reputation as a no-nonsense, nonpartisan voice with only one bias: what’s best for people with low incomes. That approach led to landmark policy victories during his tenure in the movement for economic justice.

“Alan did so much to lay the foundation for what CLASP is today. He had an unstinting, inspiring belief in the power of public policy to advance equity for low-income people and infused CLASP with that commitment. His proud legacy endures.”

— David Dodson, Current CLASP Trustee

In the child policy sphere, Alan was instrumental in transforming the child support system from a focus on recovery of state welfare assistance to a focus on family support; establishing Early Head Start to bring vital Head Start services to infants and toddlers; launching the Child Care and Development Block Grant; and advocating for passage of the Fostering Connections and Increasing Adoptions Act.

“Alan was such a remarkable leader in so many ways. As a career-long legal aid lawyer in Chicago, I know that Alan’s crucial work to advise and support local programs and secure federal sources of funding was both crucial and sensitive to local concerns — he had been a state-based legal aid guy himself. And that contribution to the cause of equal justice was magnified many times over by the way he took CLASP into its national role in fighting poverty. He leaves a giant imprint for the good on many systems and millions of lives. We will miss our champion and good friend.”

— John Bouman, Current CLASP Trustee

In the broader realm of addressing poverty, Alan ensured that CLASP played a crucial role in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which included the $5 billion TANF emergency fund to support the economic security of millions of people with low incomes. CLASP’s work on this emergency fund included extensive technical assistance to states so they could get assistance to the people who needed it most.

“Alan’s 30-plus-year tenure at CLASP shaped the extraordinary organizational strengths that I found when I succeeded him, that motivated me to come to CLASP, and that still make the organization indispensable today. These include the outstanding quality of the work; the commitment to both data and story-telling; the core underlying values of economic and racial justice; the combination of breadth across specific policy topics and depth within each; the understanding of how national policy connects to state and local policy and implementation and to the lives of individuals and families; and the modesty and lack of ego so characteristic of Alan and, because of him, of CLASP. To this day, that lack of ego is a defining feature people mention about CLASP – and one of the big reasons CLASP is so valued as a coalition partner. We’re in a moment when we need Alan’s generosity of spirit, wisdom, and commitment to unfailing core values more than ever.  We will miss him, and I know I will try my best to live up to his memory.”

— Olivia Golden, CLASP Executive Director, 2013-2022

After stepping down from CLASP, Alan served as President of the Consortium for the National Equal Justice Library. His numerous awards and honors include the National Equal Justice Award, the Coalition on Human Needs Heroes Award, and the Oberlin College Distinguished Achievement Award.

In these tenuous times for our country, as we witness the likely shrinking or dismantling of programs that support economic security, Alan’s lifetime of service will inspire us and inform our strategy.

Alan’s family asked us to share the following information:

We want to thank everyone who has gotten in touch regarding Alan’s sudden passing.  Your thoughts and well-wishes are deeply appreciated, and Alan would be very proud of the kind words we’ve heard from so many of you.

We aren’t conducting a public funeral but will let you know of any plans for a gathering or remembrance in the future.

If you wish to make a contribution in Alan’s name, please consider either a donation to CLASP (click here) or to the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Endowed Internship Fund at Oberlin College (click here and select the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Endowed Internship Fund, noting the gift is in memory of Alan Houseman.)