Help is on the way for the unemployed facing foreclosure.

President Obama is expected today to sign the financial reform legislation that contains $1 billion in assistance for unemployed homeowners whose lenders have initiated foreclosure proceedings.

"This program will help us and lots of families," said Nylton Andrade, a 33-year-old graphic design teacher who lost his job at Madison Park Technical Vocational High School in Boston last June and faces foreclosure of his three-bedroom Colonial in Brockton. "Without the help, my wife, myself and my 4-year-old will be homeless."

The Emergency Homeowners' Relief Fund, a provision of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, will be administered by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development starting in October. It will provide up to $50,000 in no- or low-interest loans for two years to unemployed homeowners who have fallen behind on their mortgage payments.

A HUD spokesman said many of the details have yet to be worked out. But housing activists say it could be modeled after similar programs where states offer soft second mortgages secured by a lien of the property. Typically, the loan is paid off upon the sale of the home or during a refinancing.

"The program gives hope to the largest numbers of people facing foreclosure - those who through no fault of their own are behind in their mortgages because of a layoff," said Lewis Finfer, executive director of the Massachusetts Communities Action Network, an advocacy organization that lobbied Congress and the White House for the assistance to unemployed homeowners.

The measure couldn't come at a better time for the Andrade family. His wife was laid off from her job as an auditor at State Street bank shortly after his pink slip arrived from the Boston school department.

"This program will buy us time to get us back on our feet," he said