“But, especially these days, unexpectedly losing a job and being unable to find another is not uncommon or due to any particular fault on the part of the borrower.”
Sorry, but you are contradicting yourself. If you are in a (potential) situation to not afford a home, perhaps you should NOT be getting into the mortgage situation in the first place. That is entirely up to the borrower. It is always an IDIOT borrower who gets into the foreclosure situation, because he did not plan ahead of his own finances. The IDIOT becomes a moocher when he expects the government to give him other peoples’ money. These people do not deserve sympathy.
Not all that lose their jobs are idiots. Markets turn and crash, firms die, etc.
When you get into a 20 or 30 year mortgage, you (and the bank) make certain assumptions - mainly, that you (and/or your spouse) will continue to be employed at something approaching your current income for the life of the mortgage.
Most people who are qualified, educated, and working in a particular field assume that they will continue on that path. The last 5 years have demonstrated that this most definitely is no longer the case, but some decent people who are not "idiots" got caught in this very extended downturn.
I know well educated people working what used to be thought "safe" jobs who suddenly found themselves laid off, firms closing, corporations dissolving and going out of business. Most prudent people have a six month emergency fund set aside for medical emergencies or job loss, but that can't continue indefinitely. That's when people who are not "idiots" find themselves in a mortgage jam.
So don't be ugly to them, realize that times are particularly hard right now and decent folks have been hurt by an unexpectedly deep and long recession. Most of them do the right thing and short sell the house to the bank and downsize. So don't call them idiots - you could be in that situation some day through no fault of your own.