FOXBORO - Gillette Stadium is a place where local sports fans place their hopes for success in football, but on Tuesday it was the place troubled homeowners went hoping to save their homes from foreclosure.

Hundreds of homeowners wrapped in a line around the stadium to file into a foreclosure prevention workshop sponsored by the New England Patriots Charitable Foundation and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

Patriot owner Robert Kraft said the action was necessary because of the tough economic times and his belief that home ownership is a key to keeping communities strong.

"I have never seen economic conditions like the one we are seeing now in my lifetime," he said.

The event provided homeowners with counseling on how to keep their homes and access to lenders to negotiate new mortgages. Chris Harper-Fahey of Neighborhood Works, a non-profit counseling service, estimated 1,500 people would attend the workshop.

Organizers said it would be many days before they could determine how many people actually got new mortgages as a result.

Michael Berman, vice chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association, said at previous similar events about 40 percent of those who participated had their mortgages altered.

Several officials said just the fact that so many people are seeking help is a positive sign because embarrassment over financial problems is one of the main obstacles to owners taking steps to save their homes.

Gov. Deval Patrick, who also attended, said he once heard from a woman who hid foreclosure warnings in her freezer because she did not know how to deal with the problem.

"People should not be ashamed that times are tough for you and your families," he said.

The governor echoed the message from others at the event who said that the sooner a homeowner talks to his or her bank about financial problems the more likely it is an arrangement can be worked out.

Ken Wade, chief executive officer of Neighborhood Works, said his organization has researched the issue and found that 50 percent of homeowners whose homes were put into foreclosure never contacted their lender about working out an arrangement.

He said focus groups have found that the major reason is embarrassment, with a lack of hope being second.

Counseling groups like his educate homeowners on available options and help negotiate lenders. Patrick and others at the event said homeowners should realize that banks and mortgage companies are in the business of lending money, not in owning homes.

Lenders would rather not foreclose on property if possible and are open to ways of keeping an owner in his or her home, he said.

Several of the officials involved in Tuesday's event said a foreclosure bill pushed by U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Newton, that recently passed Congress, should help the situation.

Berman said a key to the bill is it provide Federal Housing Administration protection to renegotiated mortgages, allowing homeowners in trouble to get stable, 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages and allowing investors to get involved in the mortgages with less risk.

Wade said another beneficial feature of the bill is it provides $180 million for counseling services to help owners keep their homes.

A third provision of Frank's bill, he said, provides funding for cities to buy abandoned homes to resell them so they do not become a blight on neighborhoods.