Advocacy groups are calling on members of Congress to think twice before pulling the plug on what could be a crucial tool to combat foreclosures. Just about everyone agrees the Obama administration's Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) has been an epic failure. But the Chicago metro area’s Regional Home Ownership Preservation Initiative (HOPI) says that's a reason to make it better not to eliminate it.

The group wrote a letter to members of Congress, urging them to oppose HR 839, or the HAMP Termination Act of 2011, which would cancel all funding for the troubled program, the primary source of help for homeowners facing foreclosure right now. Instead, HOPI writes the program should be reformed by requiring mandatory principal reduction if the cost of the foreclosure would be greater and offering assistance to unemployed homeowners. Read the letter here (PDF).

On Tuesday, the House passed the bill to end HAMP in a 252-170 vote even though President Obama  said he'd veto it if it reached him, and the legislation isn't likely to pass in the Senate anyway, according to a report by Politico. The House has already voted to eliminate similar efforts like the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, the FHA Refinance Program, and the Emergency Homeowner Relief Fund.

The $75 billion HAMP initiative is on pace to help about 1.5 million homeowners, far short of the initial goal of 4 million. In fact, 520,800 participants have been dropped from the program altogether. The biggest problem is that the system is voluntary and the lenders and servicers who have been offered financial incentives to alter the terms of mortgages just won't cooperate. For them, it's often more profitable to foreclose on homes outright and there’s no risk that a judge will cut the banks out of the modification deal to just lower the terms of a mortgage independently.

Still, the program is currently the primary tool to stabilize communities by preventing foreclosure through loan modifications, HOPI writes. And common sense says cutting the program without a new one to replace means taking away the only help there is.