Today that program constitutes the largest segment of our home-care services, which reached more than 720 children and families in 1994.

The plan arbitrarily caps home-care services, but removes money to make room in nursing homes or hospitals to pick up the slack.

The agreement comes 18 months after the last union contract on home-care services expired.

But nursing homes and home-care services are in short supply, so the transfers are delayed until the patients can be accommodated.

This, he asserted, only underscores the desperate need for home-care services and other alternatives tailored especially to minority communities.

About 2,000 of the nation's 6,000 hospitals also offer home-care services.

He said most states license home-care services, but he added, "That is not a panacea."

It has a family birthing center and provides home-care and hospice services.

This would affect the catering trade, home-care services and hairdressing salons.

But even in San Francisco, he said, nursing-home and home-care services "are going to be severely taxed."