OAKLAND — In the wake of a deadly fire at a West Oakland affordable housing complex late last month, community members and nonprofits had raised nearly $70,000 as of Friday afternoon, but support groups say it is not nearly enough to help all those in need.

The early morning blaze on March 27 at 2551 San Pablo Ave. claimed the lives of four people and left more than 100 homeless, many of whom are mothers with small children, seniors or disabled. The fundraising tally is a fraction of what has been collected in the wake of the Ghost Ship fire inside a warehouse in Oakland’s Fruitvale district, where 36 mostly young people were killed — making it the deadliest blaze in the country since 2003.

Family members of the victims, displaced residents and others impacted by the Ghost Ship fire saw an outpouring of support in the immediate aftermath of that blaze, with fundraising totals exceeding $2.25 million. On Friday, the Gray Area Foundation for the Arts, which raised the largest pot of funds for people affected by the fire, announced it was distributing the remaining portion of the nearly $1.3 million the organization garnered, with contributions from 12,105 donors.

It’s easy for the Rev. Debra Avery of First Presbyterian Church in West Oakland to see the difference in response between the two fires. The church opened its doors to residents of the March fire as city officials and the Red Cross worked to establish an emergency shelter. Since then, First Presbyterian banded together with other West Oakland ministries to collect money for the displaced residents. As of Friday, the coalition had collected approximately $16,000, but split among more than 100 people, Avery said it doesn’t amount to much.

Unlike the Ghost Ship fire, Avery said she didn’t hear about any public memorial vigils for the four people who died in the West Oakland fire that is believed to have been caused by a lit candle. And to date, she said she isn’t aware of any large fundraising events or benefit concerts, of which there were dozens in response to the Ghost Ship fire.

“I grant you there were (over) 30 deaths at Ghost Ship, but this is over 100 people displaced, and they are families with children and moms and dads and single men trying to keep their work lives together while they are living, basically, in shelters,” Avery said. “For whatever reason, it’s not holding people’s compassion the way Ghost Ship did, and it’s really a tragedy because these folks really need our help.”

At a vacant warehouse building on the American Steel Studios campus last Sunday, Jonah Strauss and fellow members of the Oakland Warehouse Coalition set up a single card table with two laptops and a stack full of checks. As of Friday, the organization had collected more than $31,000 for the displaced residents, making its fund the single largest contributor to victims of the West Oakland blaze.

Strauss said it was no surprise that the organization, which formed in the wake of the Ghost Ship fire to advocate for low-income tenants’ rights, was especially equipped to respond to the fire last month.

“I had just learned so much from observing the Ghost Ship fundraisers and seeing the good ones and the bad ones and the ones in between and seeing the pitfalls that fundraisers have,” he said. “I knew we had to do something that was completely unimpeachable and also easy to execute.”

Over the course of six hours, the group doled out some 65 checks and, in the days since, has given out 32 more. Each resident, whether child or adult, gets the same amount. Strauss said they plan to distribute a total of 125 checks totaling $228.11 each, which he recognizes won’t last long.

Other fundraisers are seeking to fill in the gaps for immediate relief. The Tzu Chi Foundation, a Buddhist nonprofit located near Clinton Park in Oakland, had donated some $12,000 to 75 households as of Friday, said Almon Shen, the foundation’s regional emergency relief director.

And displaced residents, or those acting on their behalf, have set up another 18 fundraising campaigns, either to help specific individuals or families, or to benefit everyone displaced by the fire — though the remaining campaigns have raised significantly less, totaling a little more than $10,000.

The Red Cross declined to disclose how much financial assistance it provided to either the victims of the Ghost Ship fire or this more recent fire in West Oakland.

Keyona “Kiki” Ervin, a third-floor resident displaced by the fire, lives every day with the hope of finding permanent, affordable housing. It took her more than a year to find the apartment in the San Pablo Avenue building, where she’s lived with her two adolescent girls, for the past two years. They are staying in a hotel, which Ervin said the Red Cross is paying for, but the situation can’t last long.

“It’s kind of hard to keep pushing and pushing when you know for sure you don’t have nowhere else to go,” Ervin said. “Plus, we don’t have a stove, we don’t have a real refrigerator. We just have one small little microwave. I don’t know how long this is about to last.”

Like many other residents displaced by the fire, Kenneth Johnson is grateful for the support from the Red Cross, the city and other organizations, but he’s frustrated with the pace of recovery.

“I understand that it’s a process, and it’s not going to be instant,” Johnson said. “But, I lost everything, so everyday, I wake up and I think, ‘Oh, I’m going to get this or do this or whatever,’ and then it hits me that I lost that thing in the fire, and I can’t do that.”

On Friday, Johnson was making the rounds at various doctors offices for a follow-up from his stay in the hospital, where he recovered from smoke inhalation after the fire, and with his optometrist, who helped replace his prescription glasses.

“I’m just basically trying to keep myself calm and busy doing something,” he said.

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