The Homeownership Preservation Foundation (HPF) has asked all HOPE NOW Alliance partners to stop using its housing counseling hotline – the well-recognized 888-995-HOPE number – on door hangers left behind by field service operatives at homes that may be at risk of foreclosure.

In a letter to HOPE NOW members, HPF acknowledged that the door hanger program has garnered considerable success in nudging distressed homeowners to pick up communication with their mortgage servicer or a certified foreclosure counselor. But, the Foundation explained, that both its staff and local Better Business Bureaus have received numerous consumer complaints about the informational leave-behind.

HPF also received a “cease and desist” order from the US Postal Service due to door hangers left in mail boxes by field professionals, and has even been threatened by law suits from consumers.

“This is an unwelcome and distracting situation for us,” said Colleen Hernandez, president of the Minneapolis-based Homeownership Preservation Foundation.

When initially implemented, the door hanger initiative was widely celebrated as a creative outreach tool to encourage troubled borrowers to contact a foreclosure counselor or their mortgage servicer for assistance.

According to Safeguard Properties, one of the field inspection companies who helped get the door hanger campaign off the ground, HPF had taken steps to ramp up its call center operation when the initiative was first launched in mid-2008 in anticipation of the large volume of calls expected.