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Some of President Barack Obama’s closest allies in the Bay Area are blasting his latest $25 billion proposal to settle with allegedly abusive mortgage servicers, charging the administration with shortchanging desperate homeowners while coddling the nation’s largest banks.

“It’s a drop in the bucket,” Rep. George Miller said of the proposed deal, under which five banks would provide restitution in exchange for a release from further civil liability.

Nationally, Miller said, about 10 million American borrowers collectively owe $700 billion more on their homes than the homes are worth. Administration officials have said the $25 billion settlement would help about one million families, which means that a fraction of the borrowers would get an estimated $20,000 write down on each of their mortgages.

“We don’t approve of the settlement,” said Rep. Anna Eshoo, who last Thursday joined Miller and 25 other members of California’s congressional delegation in demanding a meeting with Obama to discuss housing issues.

In an op-ed published Monday, the president’s former green jobs czar, Oakland activist Van Jones, argued that Obama could prove that he’s “serious about solving this crisis” by forcing banks to “pay a minimum of $300 billion in principal reduction for homeowners with underwater mortgages and/or restitution for foreclosed-on families.”

Web-based advocacy groups also have been pushing for a stronger deal. Daniel Mintz, a campaign coordinator with MoveOn.org, said more than 400,000 signatures had been gathered on petitions urging Obama to “hold Wall Street banks accountable by fully investigating the housing crisis” rather than a “sweetheart deal that lets them off the hook.”

The flare of opposition comes as the administration struggles to wrap up a year of negotiations over alleged fraudulent foreclosure practices at the nation’s five largest mortgage servicers.

Last week, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan told the U.S. Conference of Mayors he was “very close” to a deal, which he said would “help over a million families around the country stay in their homes and get help.”

On Monday, Donovan and Associate U.S. Attorney General Thomas Perrelli briefed Democratic and Republic state attorneys general on the outlines of a $25 billion settlement.

Geoff Greenwood, spokesman for Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, who is leading negotiations on behalf of attorneys general from all 50 states, said in an email that no deal was imminent, despite Donovan’s optimism. “AGs will need time to review materials,” he said.

Greenwood said two separate agreements have been proposed: one which includes California and one that doesn’t.  In September, California’s Attorney General Kamala Harris walked out of settlement talks saying the proposed deal at the time was too weak. On Monday, her spokesman, Shum Preston, said Harris would be approaching any new proposal cautiously.

"Attorney General Harris has consistently and repeatedly expressed concern about protecting her ability to investigate wrongdoing in the mortgage arena, and that remains a key lens through which she will evaluate any proposals,” Preston said.

In an interview, Eshoo said she believed senior officials in the administration did not take the crisis seriously. She complained that earlier meetings with Donovan, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, and Edward DeMarco, the acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which regulates Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, had been “extremely frustrating.”

On Oct. 6, Eshoo said, four House members from Northern California — Eshoo, Miller, and Reps. Mike Thompson (D-Napa) and Doris Matsui (D-Sacramento), met with DeMarco to urge him to do more to help struggling homeowners. They asked the chief of the finance agency if he had “ever met with a any family that has undergone a foreclosure.”

Eshoo said DeMarco said he had not.

“They just don’t get it,” Eshoo said.

Eshoo said she hadn’t heard back about the proposed meeting with Obama. White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage refused to comment on the demand, but she said the President remains committed to solving the housing crisis.

“From day one the President has worked to stabilize the housing market and help responsible homeowners stay in their homes, including through refinancing efforts, foreclosure prevention programs and programs directed at the hardest hit states,” she said. “The President will continue to expand on these efforts and look at new ways to help homeowners.”