Creative assistance

In the Berkshires, housing-starved artists may find aid in pursuit of space

Justin DelSignore and Jay Elling, right, renovate DelSignore's multifamily in Pittsfield. A new program, Assets for Artists, is proposed to help artists such as DelSignore afford places to live and work in the Berkshires. (STEPHEN ROSE FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE)

Realtor Daniel Bellow once tried to help an artist friend find a house in the Berkshires.

The deal, however, fell through after the friend was unable to sell a big painting she was counting on for the down payment. Bellow, the 43-year-old son of author Saul Bellow, knows how hard it is to earn a living as an artist. He sells real estate to supplement his income as a potter.

"The big problem with finding housing for artists is that they tend to not have any money," he said. "They tend to live hand to mouth."

If a new program, Assets for Artists, gets the green light from the Massachusetts Cultural Council in early 2008, artists such as Bellow's friend might have an easier time finding homes in the Berkshires. Three organizations - the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA), the Berkshire Cultural Resource Center at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, and the Office of Cultural Development in Pittsfield - will team up to use the $90,000 grant to provide financial education and home ownership support to artists in the region.

"Artists are a huge part of the creative economy of the Berkshires," said Blair Benjamin, project director for the new program as well as director of real estate and community development at MASS MoCA in North Adams. "We're looking at how to keep this an attractive place for artists to locate."

Benjamin and his collaborators began the project with a $4,320 planning grant to pinpoint the real estate needs of artists in the region. The results shed new light on the successes and failures of artists as home owners in the Berkshires.

On the plus side, a higher percentage of respondents than expected - 75 percent - already own their own homes. Many artists from the Baby Boom generation bought real estate in the Berkshires when prices were low.

But younger artists in their 30s are finding fewer such bargains. Although real estate is still less expensive than in Boston, prices in the region have been rising at a more rapid pace. Between 2000 and 2006, the average price of a single-family home in Berkshire County increased 85 percent (from $164,000 to $304,000), compared to a 54 percent increase (from $404,000 to $624,000) in Boston during the same time period, according to data Benjamin culled from the Massachusetts Association of Realtors.

"That set off some alarm bells of concern," said Benjamin, 36, a former Peace Corps volunteer who sometimes writes poetry and fiction. "Artists don't want to be suckered. They don't want to make a neighborhood more lively and attractive and then suddenly have someone turn their space into luxury condos."

To help low-income artists save for a down payment, Assets for Artists has earmarked $40,000 to be used for Individual Development Accounts (IDAs). These are essentially matching grants tied to restricted savings accounts.

An artist would save $2,000 toward a down payment and complete the program's required financial education and home ownership classes. The matching grant, provided by state and private funding sources, would add an additional $4,000 at closing. Ten home ownership IDAs are slated for the first two years.

Because artists are not your "traditional white picket fence" type of home owners, Assets for Artists plans to gear home ownership classes specifically to their needs. Many artists are looking for big lofts where they can live and work.

"Everyone dreams of a big loft," said Bellow. "It has to do with New York. It has to do with SoHo. Everyone feels that's how artists' space ought to look."

Bellow says such space is in short supply. "It takes real developer chops and financial muscle to make it happen," he said. Once raw space is fixed up, it can go for top dollar, making it unaffordable to artists.

A new 3-acre creative community anchored around the old Silk Mill building in Pittsfield will provide about 65 new live-work spaces, mostly priced in the $200,000 to $250,000 range.

Developer Roy Krantz, 59, of Jamaica Plain, got his group, Glue Creative Redevelopment, involved in the project because he wanted to create a sense of community. Slated to open in 2009, the new development will include a café, bed and breakfast units for guests, a yoga studio, theater, and rental as well as ownership options.

Meanwhile, some artists are buying multifamily houses because they offer the added benefit of possible rental income. By knocking down walls, these new home owners can create their own spacious lofts.

Justin and Huckleberry DelSignore bought a multifamily house in a Pittsfield with a small brick warehouse in back for $150,000. The two properties form an L shape configuration in a mixed-use neighborhood in the heart of downtown Pittsfield.

The DelSignores got a zero-down mortgage and qualified for a bank grant program that covered approximately $6,000 in closing costs. To receive the grant, they needed to complete an online home ownership course.

"We were lucky, if you can say that about being low income," said Justin DelSignore, 26, who works part time at Dottie's Coffee Lounge in downtown Pittsfield. "If we made much more than we were making, we'd be out of luck. Much of the population is not eligible."

The parents of two small daughters with a third child on the way, the DelSignores see their new purchase as a way to help build the creative community in the Berkshires. They now live in the three-unit wood-frame house they're fixing up for tenants. The rent will help them pay the bills so they don't have to work too many outside jobs.

Justin, a sculptor who views home renovation as a new artistic challenge, is working on a pegboard ceiling for his tenant, a screen-maker, to hang his tools. He turns the home renovation into a creative and social event, complete with beer and snacks.

"You can't be too much of a taskmaster," he said. "After a couple hours, we'll take a break, and I'll buy a round of drinks. It's not as fast-moving as a construction site but everyone has fun."

DelSignore also plans to have a big event similar to a barn-raising in the spring or summer to renovate the small two-story warehouse that once housed the Pittsfield Cornice Works, a maker of architectural tin and copper. He's thinking of turning the old brick building into a community gallery with performance space and studios.

North of Pittsfield in North Adams, artist Sean Reilly bought an old saltbox with his father with the intention of making it into a two-family.

Like many artists in the Berkshires, Reilly, 30, a painter, works several part-time jobs, including construction, gallery management, and freelance arts installation.

"I've never been a landlord before, but I have friends in town who have tenants, and it seems to work out great for them," he said. "I'm hoping to get young artistic people here."

Artist Rebecca Weinman, 27, is currently renting a one-bedroom apartment in Pittsfield but hopes to eventually buy her own home. Weinman, who also works as a waitress, museum fund-raiser, and nonprofit arts staffer, is just the kind of young artist Assets for Artists is hoping to help.

"As of right now, I have some savings, but nothing of substance," said Weinman. "Long-term financial planning is one of those things you can let go until it's too late or you're behind the curve."

Here's help

Low-income artists around the state have a number of resources to tap for housing information.

Listings ArtistLink, an organization working to create and preserve permanent places to live and work, lists space for artists across the state, www.artistlink.org, 617-727-3668, ext. 330. For information about Glue Creative Redevelopment's projects in Lowell and Jamaica Plain, as well as Pittsfield, check out www.glue.org or call 866-348-9718.

Municipalities Most cities and towns in Massachusetts have down payment and closing cost assistance programs for low-income first-time home buyers. For more information, contact your local government or go to the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development, www.mass.gov/dhcd/components/housdev/want/first_t.HTM or 617-573-1100.

Local banks Special programs include the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston's down payment assistance for first-time home owners, which is available through member banks. Check out FHLB at www.fhlbboston.com or 617-292-9600.

For more extensive information, check out Blair Benjamin's "9 Tips for First-Time Home Buyers" posted June 21, 2007 on his Asset Almanac blog assetalmanac.wordpress.com