Congress has extended the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act through 2014 as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform bill that President Obama signed this week.
PTFA ensures that renters can continue to occupy the residence for at least 90 days or the remainder of the lease when the landlord losses the property in a foreclosure.
The law was first enacted in 2009 with the support of House Financial Services Committee chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass.
An analysis of foreclosure data by the National Low Income Housing Coalition that year found that nearly 40% of families affected by foreclosures are renters.
"The extension of PTFA is a critical step in making sure that low-income families who are at-risk of ending up in the streets through no fault of their own are able to keep their homes," said NLIHC president Sheila Crowley.
Crowley also noted that the Dodd-Frank bill directs the Housing and Urban Development secretary to develop a program for refinancing troubled multifamily mortgages.
"Addressing the growing multifamily foreclosure rate shows a keen understanding that it is not just homeowners who are losing their homes through foreclosures," the NLIHC president said.
