Are lenders doing enough to help homeowners facing foreclosure?

The U.S. Treasury Department is in the midst of asking — some would say demanding — that mortgage lenders adopt a new set of uniform, but voluntary, rules that would make it easier for them to modify mortgage loans that homeowners can no longer afford.

A group of 10 lenders have formed project Hope Now, an organization dedicated to helping homeowners who are facing foreclosure. The big question is whether mortgage lenders have done enough: Mortgage lenders have reworked more than 502,000 loans through Hope Now in the first three months of this year.

Some say that’s great. Others ask what’s taking the mortgage lenders so long.

The key thing to keep in mind is that no one benefits from a foreclosure: Not banks, mortgage firms, the public or, of course, homeowners. Bickering about whether mortgage lenders are the main cause of the rising number of foreclosures or arguing over whether they’re moving too slowly to help is not productive.

Instead, government officials and mortgage lenders need to work side-by-side to not only slow the number of foreclosures spreading across the country but to make sure that another mortgage crisis isn’t just five, seven or 10 years away.