When Racheal Xavier returned to Massachusetts in 2022 after several years away, she was shocked by how much housing prices had skyrocketed.
The single mother and owner of her own fashion line said she couldn’t afford a space to live and work.
And then she found out about the Fitchburg Arts Community, a local project in this former mill city about 50 miles northwest of Boston aimed at providing affordable housing for local artists.
“I was jumping through the gates. I needed a place to live,” she told GBH News. “The help I get to live here makes it so I can continue.”
It’s an income-limited affordable housing project, but it gives preference to local artists. Xavier is one of about 20 artists living in the community of 68 affordable housing units, a $46 million project that opened last year. The homes were created in three formerly abandoned buildings: a local middle school that burned down in 2016, a high school annex and a horse stable.
They sit across from Fitchburg Art Museum, and are meant to help revitalize the city’s downtown and welcome creatives to Fitchburg.
Xavier and her daughter, Jet, have been in their two-bedroom unit for almost a year. She says the apartment is the “most spacious” she’s ever lived in — a two-bedroom home with a kitchen, living room, work space and a storage space shared with neighbors that she uses to house her racks of clothing.
The painters, designers and writers who live there have gotten to know each other through shared spaces and open studios, she said.
“We all have different practices, and we are coming together to build the community,” Xavier said.
The new housing is part of growing effort among the state’s Gateway Cities, smaller cities outside of Boston, to reinvent themselves and repurpose industrial buildings that had long been in disrepair.
It follows in the footsteps of the Western Avenue Studios, an artist community that opened nearly 20 years ago in Lowell and now boasts homes for some 400 artists.
“There is a conscious drive in Fitchburg — as in many Gateway Cities — to use arts and culture as a way to recover the economy,” said Francisco Ramos, director of community organizing at NewVue Communities, a nonprofit and developer of the Fitchburg housing project.
Ramos said there’s still more room to create housing through these types of initiatives.
“One of the common characteristics of Gateway Cities is that they are post-industrial cities where the manufacturing has left and there are these big mill buildings that are empty and abandoned,” he said.
Marc Dohan, senior director of real estate development of NewVue Communities, said the Fitchburg project came out of an effort to work with residents, city officials and residents to turn a liability into an asset.
“Some people saw them as vacant buildings, but we saw them as historic buildings,” he said.
Dohan said although the project hopes to attract artists, it is also open to anyone who qualifies for affordable housing. Tenant incomes range from 30% to 90% of the area’s median income — and some artists who make too much money didn’t qualify under the financial restrictions of the units.
Ramos also has worked to promote local empowerment through a program called the Steward Leadership Development Training Program, where creatives learn how to submit proposals, pay their taxes and budget.
He said they also focused on how to avoid gentrification that often comes with housing success.
“They are aware that in other cities, in other parts of the country, developers have used artists to create artist communities that displace the local residents and then the artists themselves are displaced,” he said.
NewVue says they are committed to avoiding such displacement — by building apartments in structures that weren’t previously housing and focusing on affordable homes.
“We slow down displacement by the type of housing that NewVue builds,” Dohan said.
The housing project, which opened last summer, fits in with larger efforts to make artists belong in the city. Last week, a nonprofit called CoFF33 Corp — made up of a collaboration of small businesses, nonprofits and artists — hosted a program called 01420. Named after Fitchburg’s zip code, it included a slate of events, including poetry, collage-making and youth-led performances.
Derek Craig, chief visionary officer of CoFF33 Corp, says he wants downtown Fitchburg to be seen as a “nexus for arts and culture” in the region. He pointed to live music, restaurants, and even a “rage room” and escape rooms nearby.
Coff33 Corp also runs a community space on Main Street called Canvas — which hosts cultural events and workshops in a historic building once used for shoe manufacturing.
“We are in the center of a lot of creative enterprises,’’ he said. “There’s lots of opportunities.”
Basil Tolos, a painter and former teacher, says he is beneficiary of these new opportunities.
Tolos is now living in the Fitchburg Arts Community with his wife. He said he was particularly drawn to the spot, formerly the B.F. Brown Middle School, where he went to school as a kid and later worked as a teacher.
Tolos said he and his wife sold their family home to move to the renovated building. He enjoys the urban living and also wanted to collaborate with other artists.
“For artists to grow, they have to connect with other artists,’’ he said. “Being in a place like this, where you’re not isolated, will help us all grow.”
GBH News’ Jenifer McKim contributed to this report.
This story is part of a GBH News project focusing on Gateway Cities. Want to tell us about your community? Or have a story about art and culture? Reach out to us at equityandjustice@wgbh.org.
