Welcome to The Newsfeed.

I'm Paris Jackson.

There is a housing crisis in Seattle with affordability being one of the many challenges.

Today we're going to introduce you to a couple on a mission to build what they call self-determined affordable housing.

Edwin Lindo and Estell Williams took their first leap into business as co-founders of Estelitas Library in Beacon Hill, that's now in the Central District.

They're raising funds for their next ambitious endeavor, a nearly $28 million project that will bring housing stability to this community.

-I mean, it really is a homecoming.

Seattle's Beacon Hill neighborhood is special to Edwin Lindo and his wife, Doctor Estell Williams.

-You know, we started just up the street here.

That was our original location.

And so coming back here, we were welcomed with open arms.

In 2018, they opened Estelitas Library, their small social justice community library and bookstore inspired by their daughter, Estella, in this neighborhood, -The vision of our new location and headquarters, we are going to be curating a special like event space that can still be used for community.

Seven years later, they're birthing a new dream.

The vision, a 36 to 40 unit property large enough to accommodate families with 3 to 4 bedrooms.

To transform this traditional Filipino, African American and Latino community into a cultural hub.

With the anchor being their affordable complex.

Over the summer, they finalized the purchase of the former Dragon Auto Repair and Transmission property and plan to close on this house within the next month.

So far, they say they've raised about $7 million.

They're keenly aware of the stereotypes and biases communities of color still face when it comes to ownership.

-We had an event when we first launched.

There was a couple that came by.

It was a white couple, and they came up to me and they said, congratulations.

And I was like, thank you so much.

And they said, it's really nice that the owner lets you do this.

And I was like, it is because we are the owner.

And they're like, no, no, I mean, the, the owners of the... I know you're the owner of Estelitas, but the owners of the property are letting you do this.

That speaks volumes to the fact that there are people who can't comprehend that people who look like me and my wife could own this land.

So we're doing something to recalibrate the conscious of what it means to be us.

Williams, a surgeon, and Lindo, a professor both at the University of Washington Medical School.

They plan to develop this land guided by a radical love for the community.

The same social justice principles that have made their library a thriving space in the Central District.

Our skills as either doctors or as professors, those are just tools in a toolbox.

It is nothing special about us.

It is nothing spectacular.

It is nothing better than anyone else.

Before this site was auto shops, it was an Exxon Mobil gas station.

He says it left the property contaminated.

He says their $28 million funding goal includes cleanup costs and the development construction.

Aware of the challenges ahead, Williams says they're not seeking traditional funding through federal grants, which place income restrictions on tenants, but rather through city and state sources.

-We're relying on people to use their imagination.

Sometimes we can be limited by our own fears.

We'd be limited by what we have seen, with that exposure has been.

They also say they want to create an opportunity for renters to become owners if they want to.

-You know, you can believe in somebody else, and it doesn't have to be this individualistic thing that the, unfortunately, the US breeds us to believe in.

You know, you can, with your whole heart, invest in somebody else simply for the joy of watching them succeed.

-It's going to take every single one of us for this project to come to life.

I'm Paris Jackson.

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