WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — Bob Stange expected to be spending Monday morning in a courtroom, fighting his landlord for the right to stay in his apartment.

Instead, he found himself still with his landlord, Amy Voorhees, who rode with him to the White River Junction DMV office so he could take his driver’s license test.

After a year of legal battles, health issues and searching for more accommodating housing, Stange, 86, and his wife, Cindy Anne Packard-Stange, 66 are finally making amends with Voorhees and moving into a ground floor apartment.

“Amy and I feel comfortable with each other and if one of us needs something the other will be there,” Packard-Stange said in a phone interview.

On March 24, a week before the scheduled trial in their eviction case, Packard-Stange invited Voorhees, 54, to sit down with her and discuss settling out of court.

Voorhees agreed to help the couple purchase a washing machine and dryer, move their belongings to their new apartment on Hartford Avenue and take Stange to the DMV for a road test — required by his doctor to renew his driver’s license.

In exchange, the couple promised to be out of the Demers Avenue unit by the second week of April.

The couple has lived the apartment off Route 5 near Hartford High School for 17 years, 13 of those without a lease.

Voorhees purchased the 3,900-square-foot, two-story house in January 2024 for $307,000, according to town property records. She had rented another home on the same street for over a decade where she raised her three kids as a single mother.

“I never fathomed I would own a home,” Voorhees said, while waiting for Stange to complete his road test. “I lost my house in my divorce, my credit was ruined. It took me 10 years to rebuild my finances.”

The seller of the home told her that Stange and Packard-Stange would be vacating the second-floor apartment by March 1, 2024.

When that didn’t happen, Voorhees, who lives on the first floor of the home with two of her children, drew up a written lease agreement with a rent increase from $800 a month to $1,700, putting it more line with market rates, she said.

“I wanted a written lease in place to protect both of us,” Voorhees said. “When they didn’t agree to a more reasonable rent, I had no choice but to give them the 90 days eviction notice.”

In Vermont, if there is no written agreement, a landlord can evict tenants for no reason, often referred to as a “no cause eviction.”

The couple fought the eviction notice, which they received in March of last year, arguing Voorhees was evicting them based on Stange’s age and disability. Rachel Batterson of Vermont Legal Aid represented the couple at no cost to them.

While not all of the paperwork is finalized, both parties said the matter is now resolved.

Still, finding affordable and accessible housing, as the couple faced health challenges, has not been easy. Because of Stange’s limited mobility, the couple had already been searching for a ground-floor apartment, but finding one that matched their needs and their budget proved difficult.

Besides being in remission for bladder and skin cancer, and undergoing treatment for blood cancer, Stange also fell and broke his hip last fall. Once at Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center in Windsor, doctors discovered internal bleeding in Stange’s throat. He shuttled between Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and Mt. Ascutney for about two months before coming home on the last day of December.

Packard-Stange also is experiencing health issues. She was recently diagnosed with a rare skin disease that causes painful ulcers on her thighs. “Stress elevates it a lot,” Packard-Stange said.

After being on about 10 different affordable housing waiting lists for the past year, the couple finally found a ground level, two-bedroom apartment on Hartford Avenue through Twin Pines Housing, a nonprofit in White River Junction that develops and manages affordable homes.

The new apartment costs $1,000 a month including utilities, one-third of the couple’s Social Security checks. A grant from the Upper Valley Haven, a White River Junction nonprofit providing housing and services to community members experiencing homelessness, covered the security deposit, the cost of a moving company and first month’s rent.

The couple signed a lease in February, but as of Tuesday they still weren’t out of their Demers Avenue place.

“There’s been one obstacle with that apartment after another,” Packard-Stange said.

Logistical challenges such as snowy weather, needing to sign up for a post office box since there’s no mailbox at the new apartment, and acquiring and hooking up a washer and dryer keep postponing the move.

The latest delay came after Packard-Stange found out her landline, a crucial tool for the couple since they do not have cellphones or computers, could not be transferred over to their new home until Monday, April 7.

“I wish it would slow down,” Packard-Stange said. “It’s a lot of change all at the same time.”

On Monday, Stange failed his driving test. He correctly parallel parked, which he practiced diligently since he hadn’t done it in 64 years, but went over the speed limit and crossed a yellow line while turning onto a side street, he said.

Stange will get another try at renewing his license on April 14. In the meantime, he can only drive with a licensed driver in the passenger seat, making the move more difficult since Packard-Stange does not have a driver’s license.

Despite the challenges, moving to an affordable unit without any stairs to negotiate and with handle grips in the bathroom will be good for them, the couple said.

“This is not about me, it’s about my husband. I want him to be comfortable,” Packard-Stange said. “You have to make sure your family member is safe.”

Emma Roth-Wells can be reached at erothwells@vnews.com or 603-727-3242.