renters . About 40 percent of people facing eviction from foreclosure in the United States are renters , according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition -LSB- NLIHC -RSB- . Yet regulations on the rental industry vary by state , and often there are no protections for those living in rental properties . For Stephens , the ordeal started with bad news from her landlord . `` My landlord came and told me that his property was being foreclosed on , '' Stephens said . She moved her children , one then a newborn and the other two under 7 , to a cheaper rental but had to leave there , too , when she lost her job and then her new landlord decided to sell the property . Watch more about the ordeals of some renters '' `` I had to hold back my tears because I 'm like , oh my goodness . I 'm from a middle-class family . ... I 've had the best of everything , '' said Stephens . `` I 've never been in a situation where I did n't have a place to live . I made the money . '' While
RICHMOND , Virginia -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Maria Stephens barely flinches when her three rambunctious young sons strike up a baseball game in her living room . `` I thought you boys were going to play in the front yard , '' she laughs while Christian , 2 , swings a black plastic bat near the kitchen table . Maria Stephens went from making $ 80,000 a year to being homeless with three boys to care for . It 's hard to imagine all that energy cooped up in the small room where Stephens and her children spent seven months last year -- in a homeless shelter . Stephens , a mortgage underwriter who made $ 80,000 a year , faced a reversal of fortune so swift and devastating she still ca n't quite fathom it . The single mom went from paying $ 1,900 a month in rent to bunking at the shelter , an unexpected victim in the foreclosure crisis . And she is not alone . While the foreclosure rate across the country has grown dramatically in recent months , often lost in the statistics are numbers of Americans made homeless through no fault of theirs --