The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has created a pilot program designed to increase homeownership opportunities on Native American tribal lands.

As part of this program, USDA will loan $800,000 each to Mazaska Owecaso Otipit Financial and to Four Bands Community Fund, two Native Community Development Financial Institutions (NCDFIs). These organizations will relend the money to eligible homebuyers for mortgages on eligible South Dakota and North Dakota Tribal trust lands, and they will also service the loans after they are made.

USDA is providing the funding through the Single Family Housing Direct Loan program, and each of the NCDFIs will contribute $200,000 for mortgages in the pilot program. The pilot program will begin this summer, and the USDA Rural Development’s state office in Huron, S.D., will oversee the initiative.

“To thrive, rural America needs a creative and forward-thinking partner in USDA,” said Assistant to the Secretary for Rural Development Anne Hazlett, who added that her Department is “harnessing innovation so we can be a better, more effective partner to Tribal communities in building their futures.”