The Southern Ute Indian Tribe’s Home Loan Program has been available to tribal members for little over a year now. The program was established to help tribal members purchase new and used mobile homes, refinance homes, make home improvements and additions, and build stick-built houses. Loans are available for home loans on Tribal trust and Tribal fee land within the Reservation.

To date 81 percent of applications submitted have been approved and the tribe has closed 10 loans over the past year.

According to Mathew Morishige, Tribal Credit division head, 76 percent of the workable applications required the applicant to complete financial literacy courses.

The Southern Ute Finance Department began hosting in-class Financial Literacy Classes to help tribal members qualify for the loans. Tribal members used to have to attend a 4-week in-class curriculum to complete the financial literacy requirement. Twenty-four applicants graduated from the in class facility, Morishige said.

But now, the financial literacy classes are all being offered solely online. Tribal members can now complete the classes at there own convenience without having to attend a class.

“We’ve gone electric to expedite the process,” Morishige said.

The new program takes an average of three weeks to complete, and requires applicants to receive an 80 percent on all tests including on the final test inorder to pass – the average test score on the final test, so far, is 92 percent.

Currently, there are 18 tribal members enrolled in the new online program, with five having already completed it.

The Tribal Credit Division has also identified The Southern Ute Drum as a centralized location for sellers and buyers to locate information on housing opportunities.

To sign up for Financial Literacy Classes online or if you have questions about applying for a loan, you can contact Tribal Credit at 970-563-4744