Disabled Woman Wins Court Victory on Care : Ruling: Judge grants injunction to allow Tracy Grimes to stay in unlicensed home.

Tracy Grimes, a severely disabled woman who was forced by the state to leave the care of a Chatsworth couple who had taken her into their family, won a major victory Monday in her battle to return to the couple’s home.

Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Judith Ashman granted a preliminary injunction stipulating that the home of Gabrielle and Frederick Hanna did not have to be licensed as a care facility for lGrimes, who uses a wheelchair, to live there. The judge also said that the Hannas, whom Grimes wishes to hire as her care-givers, could not be denied state funds to serve in that role.

“I’m so happy I can go back with my family,” Grimes said, crying, as she was wheeled from the courtroom by elated members of the Hanna family and television crews gathered around them.

But Grimes, 32, who has been living in a Northridge board-and-care facility since April, could not go home with the Hannas right away, and may not be able to for at least several weeks.

Esther Epstein, a lawyer representing Grimes on behalf of San Fernando Valley Neighborhood Legal Services, explained the situation to Grimes and friends after the hearing.

“You should understand you are not going home today,” Epstein gently told Grimes on Monday. The state could appeal the ruling, and state officials still have to go through the process of determining how much state aid Grimes should receive, Epstein said.

“We won the big fight. . . ,” she said, “but there are still a lot of little fights.”

Grimes, who speaks with some difficulty, said she understood. “I know I just have to hang in there a little bit longer,” she said.

Grimes suffered a brain-stem hemorrhage in 1987 that left her paralyzed and partly blind. She cannot move her wheelchair or care for herself without assistance.

She was living in a care facility in 1991 when the Hannas met her through their Reseda church. They grew close, and eventually the Hannas invited Grimes to move in with them last year.

Drawing on her Social Security benefits, Grimes contributed to the rent on their house, and Gabrielle Hanna quit her job to take care of Grimes full-time.

But the Hannas hit a snag when they applied for funds from the state In-Home Supportive Services program. State officials told them that the funds are available only to disabled people living in the home they occupied at the time they became disabled or if relatives are caring for them.

For the Hannas to care for Grimes, state officials said, the house they rent would have to be licensed. That would require substantial remodeling.

But then, in a Catch-22 situation, Grimes would no longer be eligible for the in-home funds because they only apply to home care, not licensed facilities.

The Hannas were told that unless Grimes was placed in a licensed facility, they would be fined $200 a day.

Deputy Atty. Gen. James Ahern, who represented the state in court, said in a brief interview before the hearing that he felt the law was clear: “What this case is about is care and supervision of the disabled. The Hannas are not licensed to provide that care.”

Ahern would not say, after the hearing, if the state plans to appeal.

Meanwhile, Grimes’ lawyers said they plan to ask the state to evaluate their client’s condition as soon as possible so that her level of IHSS funding can be determined.

“If you and the Hannas had all the money in the world, you could move back in with them today,” Epstein told Grimes Monday. “But that’s not the real world. We have to be patient.”