City Government

City Earmarks $600,000 for Fire Survivors, As Faith Groups Continue Fundraising

Published

9 years ago

April 19, 2017

Rebecca Kaplan Auctions Warriors tickets to help survivors

Oakland is still struggling to resettle the survivors of the San Pablo Avenue fire that killed four people and displaced over 70 households.
The Oakland City Council voted unanimously at its meeting this week to spend $615,000 in community development block grant money to help relocate the tenants who were displaced by the March 27 fire at 2551 San Pablo Ave.

So far this week, 54 residents of building have already been approved to receive relocation assistance. Survivors are eligible for assistance ranging from $6,500 to $12,375.

Also this week, City Councilmember-at-Large Rebecca Kaplan arranged to auction off a pair Warriors’ tickets in the city’s private suite at Oracle Arena to raise money to benefit the survivors.

Kaplan said the city has received numerous complaints that officials are not doing enough to help.

“The amount of response from the administration has been much less than after Ghost Ship,” Kaplan said. “And serious concerns from the people of the San Pablo fire that people still haven’t been able to get their lives back together.”

“It’s not fair to expect struggling tenants, who have lost their homes, to go through the process of suing the property owner for relocation assistance,” said Kaplan. “Having them do this would cause the very thing that we’re trying to protect, displacement of Oakland residents.”

Coordinating fundraising to support the fire survivors, Oakland Faith-based leaders and community-based organizations continue to seek donations to the West Oakland San Pablo Fire Relief and Advocacy Team.

Co-chairs of the advocacy team are Pastor Debra Avery of the First Presbyterian Church of Oakland and Bishop Joseph E. Simmons of Greater Saint Paul Missionary Baptist Church.

The organization has designated the First Presbyterian Church of Oakland as the fiscal agent for the San Pablo Fire Relief and Advocacy Team Advocacy fund. Checks can be made out to: FPCO and mailed to the church at 2619 Broadway, Oakland, CA 94612.

Or you can make a donation online (501c3 – all donations are tax-deductible):

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Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

Published

5 days ago

July 5, 2026

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Inaugural Juneteenth Awards Ceremony Celebrates the Fillmore’s Black History, Leadership and Resilience

Addressing more than 100 Black and Asian attendees, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie stated “San Francisco is reliant on the Black community, and we must invest in this community.”

Published

2 weeks ago

June 26, 2026

Oakland Post

District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, Rev. Dr. Amos Brown, Pastor Emeritus of Third Baptist Church, SF Mayor Daniel Lurie. Photo by Linda Parker Pennington.

By Linda Parker Pennington

The Fillmore Community Ambassadors held its first annual Juneteenth Wesley Johnson White Horse Awards ceremony on June 19 inside the newly reopened Fillmore Heritage Center.

The event featured awards for former San Francisco mayors London Breed and Willie Brown, along with Third Baptist Church Pastor Emeritus, Rev. Dr. Amos Brown.

The Koret Heritage lobby at the newly reopened center at 1330 Fillmore St. held a standing-room-only, culturally diverse and multi-generational audience while the art gallery featured photos of Fillmore community members in action, red Japanese lanterns, art and calligraphy, and Chinese artwork, giving the space a multicultural feel.

Addressing more than 100 Black and Asian attendees, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie stated “San Francisco is reliant on the Black community, and we must invest in this community.”

District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood acknowledged that “the Fillmore community has had a difficult history. Thanks to Rev. Amos Brown’s continuous focus on accountability and resistance, you hold us accountable and continue to inspire us.”

Mahmoud is referring to the Fillmore’s Japanese residents who were forced from their homes and sent to concentration camps during World War II. Black people occupied those homes until the return of their Japanese neighbors and then gave them back, while homes that had been unoccupied were lost. The presence of the Asian community on Juneteenth is a testament to that shared history.

In receiving his honor, Amos Brown elicited a powerful spontaneous call-and-response, where members of San Francisco’s many Black churches proudly shouted out the names: “Bethel AME! Providence Baptist! Jones Memorial! Glide!”

Awards program Master of Ceremonies Shawn Richards of Brothers Against Guns warmly introduced Breed, highlighting her many accomplishments, particularly on “March 16, 2020, when she became the first mayor to shut down a major U.S. city due to COVID-19, saving thousands of lives.”

The audience was captivated by Breed’s emotional speech touching on past traumas, present conditions, and future hopes for the neighborhood where she grew up.

She recalled another trauma of the neighborhood during the City’s redevelopment era in the 1960s, where Black residents were forced to move with a promise of being able to return that was largely unfulfilled.

“We remember when this land was just a field because they bulldozed hundreds of Victorian homes that Black people owned. They built the Fillmore Center, where most Black people can’t afford to live or start their own business. But we are still here.”