November 19, 1991

Mayor David N. Dinkins's plan to scatter up to 24 shelters for the homeless in New York City's middle-class communities suffered a potentially devastating political setback yesterday when the chairman of the Mayor's own Commission on Homelessness said he favored scrapping the plan and starting over. On the eve of the panel's first public hearing, the chairman, Andrew Cuomo, said that if he could not get the 18-member commission to agree with him, he might quit. He said he was seeking a consensus for "radical change" in how, where and by whom homeless people are helped.

The ink was barely dry after President Bush signed the law extending benefits for the long-term unemployed when idled workers started calling unemployment insurance offices in the New York metropolitan region to ask for their checks. State labor officials in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are advising unemployed men and women who have exhausted their normal insurance since March 1 to wait for applications for extended benefits to come in the mail. Mr. Bush signed the $5.3 billion package after Congress passed an amended version late Friday, and first thing this morning calls began flooding regional labor department offices as labor union locals mobilized their laid-off members to find out if they were eligible.

The debate in Congress that led to consideration of a cap on credit card interest rates subsided yesterday, but it turned an unwelcome spotlight on one of the banking industry's richest businesses at a time when the industry can least afford the attention. As many of the nation's largest banks struggle with losses from commercial real estate loans, the credit card business was one of the industry's few bright spots. It accounted for a quarter of all bank profits and generated returns that have been double the amount banks strive to earn on their loans.

With more than 1,200 Haitian boat people being held aboard United States Coast Guard cutters, the State Department announced today that it was starting to send them back, resuming a repatriation program suspended since a violent coup overthrew Haiti's elected Government on Sept. 30. The decision came after a weekend in which Coast Guard ships picked up hundreds of new refugees from small boats off northern Haiti, bringing the total number of Haitians in United States custody to nearly 1,800. In addition to those still at sea, officials said, about 500 refugees are being temporarily housed at the United States' military base at Guantanamo, Cuba. 'A Very Tough Thing' Officials said the decision to resume forcible repatriation of the Haitians, which quickly drew attacks from human rights groups, was made out of exasperation after weekend Voice of America broadcasts to Haiti urging listeners not to set out for United States shores failed to stem the flow of would-be refugees.

Salomon Brothers Inc., aggressively seeking to shape a new identity in the wake of the Treasuries market scandal, is dismissing as many as 135 professional employees, Wall Street executives said yesterday. Also, some 15 managing directors are expected to resign by the end of the year, executives inside and outside the firm said. The managing directors are among Salomon's top executives, a group that coincidentally numbers about 135.