The philanthropic response in recent months to the nation’s home foreclosure crisis is a cause for optimism, said George McCarthy, senior program officer at the Ford Foundation, in New York.

Speaking at a session here called, “What Can I Do About the Mortgage Crisis?,” Mr. McCarthy acknowledged that foundations’ early support for additional housing counselors had been largely insufficient.

These counselors, who help people facing foreclosure consider their range of financial options, currently have limited financial tools available to them to help people save their homes. As a result, some of the counselors are getting so depressed by their inability to help people that counseling charities have had to hire trauma experts.

The Consumers Credit Counseling Services of Greater Atlanta, a nonprofit group largely financed by the lending industry, is a pilot site for a new program that provides housing counselors with the same software lenders use so credit counselors themselves can see if they can fashion a loan modification,. Mr. McCarthy said

Early indications show that such new capabilities have enabled housing counselors to help a third to one half of all callers keep their homes. And these figures should rise as the approach is put into use more frequently, he said.

Several foundations will be announcing plans to pay for expanding this system to other locations later this month, Mr. McCarthy told the session sponsored by the Neighborhood Funders Group, a network of grant makers focused on improving neighborhoods dominated by needy people.

Wendy Jackson, program officer at the Kresge Foundation in Detroit, told the session that to combat the city’s massive foreclosure problem, several oundations, including her own, provided $1.3-million to create the Detroit Office of Foreclosure Intervention and Response.

“It’s central home for helping Detroit think through what’s going to be its A-game strategy to address foreclosures,” Ms. Jackson said. “It’s not just about putting money on the table – – the philanthropic response can involve really serving as a broker or solutions leader in their community.”