First came the cutback in hours and wages at work. Then Arsenio Caballero started having trouble paying the mortgage on his family’s Sweetwater home. A fruitless attempt at a loan modification followed.

And finally, as foreclosure loomed and the 47-year-old was preparing to hire a lawyer, he got a letter notifying him of another option: mediation. He met with his bank earlier this month and worked out a payment plan that he could afford. “I’m going to keep my house,” said Caballero, a pizza delivery driver who is married with two teenagers. “My payment is due next month, but I’m going to send it in two days.”

In an effort to help more homeowners avoid foreclosure, a group of government agencies, nonprofit organizations and mortgage lenders will gather for the Help for Homeowners Community Event at the James L. Knight Center in Miami Wednesday.

The event is geared to homeowners who have fallen behind on their mortgages or who are facing financial difficulty and at risk of falling behind, said Andrea Risotto, a spokeswoman with the U.S. Treasury Department. The agency is sponsoring the event with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and Hope Now, a private nonprofit funded mainly by the mortgage industry.

“This is really an opportunity to have an honest, objective conversation about their status and next steps,” Risotto said.

Letters about the workshop have gone out to homeowners who have missed a mortgage payment. About a third of the people who attend leave with a solution, Risotto said, but everyone gets a better idea of their status and what they need to do next.

For many, such events provide something that may have been elusive: a face-to-face conversation. Brad Dwin, director of communications for Hope Now, said most of the major mortgage lenders have committed to attending.

Organizers anticipate hundreds of people. At a similar event in West Palm Beach last August, Dwin said, 800-900 people attended.

About 25,000 foreclosures are filed each month in Florida; in January, foreclosures rose 52 percent in Miami-Dade County compared to last year, when filings slowed due to allegations that lenders were cutting corners. A recent settlement between the government and five major banks over the mishandling of foreclosures around the country is expected to bring $8.4 billion in housing help to Florida. That would translate into mortgage reductions, lower interest rates or cash for homeowners who have lost their homes, fallen behind on payments or found themselves under water on their loans.

For groups participating in Wednesday’s event, the ideal situation is avoiding the foreclosure process altogether.

The Collins Center for Public Policy, which facilitated Caballero’s mediation,

works with delinquent homeowners whose loans are backed by Fannie Mae. The mediation program either helps the homeowner work out a loan modification or plan a “graceful exit” such as a short sale with the goal of avoiding foreclosure.

Ned Pope, the center’s vice president, said homeowners are often surprised when they get to the mediation phase. “A lot of the folks go in there extremely skeptical until they see the representative from the bank on the other side of the table and the documents they’ve submitted,” he said. “I think that’s when it really hits home. We certainly want to increase the participation in that.”

Miami Herald staff writer Deborah Acosta contributed to this report.