WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — A couple facing health challenges is fighting their landlord in court for the right to stay at their Demers Avenue apartment because they have nowhere else to go.

Bob Stange, 85, and Cindy Anne Packard-Stange, 65, have lived in their home off Route 5 near Hartford High School for 17 years, 13 of those without a lease. Although they’d like to move because the stairs up to the second-floor apartment pose a challenge for them, they can’t find other housing.

“I’ve looked at 200 places between New Hampshire and Vermont,” Packard-Stange said in a phone interview. “Nobody would touch us with a 10-foot pole.”

The couple’s housing struggle comes as Vermont’s rental vacancy rate is 3%, according to a June 2024 report by Vermont Housing Finance Agency. The situation is only more challenging across the river where New Hampshire Housing reported a statewide rental vacancy rate of 0.8% as of 2023. The rates for both states sit far below 5%, which is considered “healthy.” The couple’s situation is further complicated by their age, health and the ongoing legal case with their landlord.

“They say my husband is a fall-risk,” Packard-Stange said.

At the end of October, Stange did fall and broke his hip. He was still at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center as of Tuesday afternoon and has battled several other health issues while there, such as internal bleeding in his esophagus and pneumonia.

Stange also has skin, blood, and bladder cancer.

“It’s been one disaster right after the other,” said Packard-Stange, who also fell and hurt her back Sunday. “I’m worried about losing him because he’s stressing out over where we’ re going to live.” The couple is now only looking for first floor apartments.

Because Stange still works as a custodian at Upper Valley Food Co-op in White River Junction, the couple doesn’t qualify for some low-income housing options.

They’ve been offered a handful of apartments, but had to decline them because they all had stairs.

“Where do we belong? Where do we fit in as citizens?” Packard-Stange said.

Making the search for housing more difficult is the ongoing legal battle with their landlord, Amy Voorhees, who is attempting to evict them.

“In this market, it’s very hard to get in the door when you have ongoing litigation,” said attorney Rachel Batterson of Vermont Legal Aid who’s representing the couple. “It’s not unusual for landlords to refuse to rent to a tenant even if there’s an eviction and they won.”

Voorhees became the property owner this January, when she bought it for $307,000, according to town property records. She currently resides on the first floor of the 3,932-square-foot home, which also includes a garage, unfinished basement and enclosed porch.

On March 3, she informed the couple that she would be increasing the rent from $800 a month to $1,700 a month, not including utilities, starting March 15.

“By not signing this agreement you are stating you and your belongings will be off the property by 3/15/24. This must be signed in the next 24 hours,” stated the document.

Once they received the notice, Stange went to the Norwich library to research their rights as tenants. He found a landlord must give 60 days notice of increasing rent which Voorhees did not do. Stange alerted Voorhees of this and a few days later on March 9, Voorhees served the couple an 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 is fighting the eviction by arguing that there are reasons for it: discrimination based on age and disability, and retaliation.

Batterson alleges that Voorhees is retaliating against the couple both for them rejecting the rent increase and for raising concerns about the apartment not meeting fire codes.

“The goal is for Cindy Anne and Bob to stay there until they can find another place to live because otherwise they will be homeless,” Batterson said.

Reached by phone last week, Voorhees declined to be interviewed for this story. She did say she is “just a regular single mom,” and doesn’t own other rental properties.

Todd Steadman, of Davis Steadman Percy & Sluka LLC in White River Junction, is representing Voorhees. Steadman did not respond emails or phone calls seeking comment.

“This area of the law is hyper technical, meaning that it demands 100% compliance from the landlord and even a minor mistake can cause an eviction case to be dismissed by the court,” Angela Zaikowski, director of Vermont Landlord Association wrote in an email. “One of the biggest challenges for landlords who are evicting tenants is the length of time it takes to navigate the process.”

In addition to looking for housing on the market, the couple is also on about 10 different affordable housing waiting lists, some of which they’ve been on for over a year.

“They’ve followed through with everything,” said Nancy Griffin, a service coordinator at Upper Valley Haven who’s been working with the couple for nearly two years. “They’ve done their due diligence. They just have a lot of vulnerabilities.”

The couple cannot be evicted while the case is ongoing. If they do eventually lose their housing, they may be put up in a motel or a room in Haven’s adult shelter, Griffin said. However, the shelter, which has room for 20 people, currently has a waiting list of more than 200 people, according to Michael Redmond, executive director of the Haven.

Pretrial for the case is set for Monday in Windsor Superior Court, Civil Division located in Woodstock.

Even if the couple wins the case, Voorhees can still raise the rent as long as she gives them 60 days notice. Packard-Stange said she and her husband may be able to afford the increase, but with the hospital bills piling up, and uncertainty about whether Stange will return to work, she’s unsure.

If Voorhees wins the case, the judge will issue a “writ of possession” which must be served to the couple by the sheriff within 60-days of issuance.

They will then have either one or two weeks to vacate depending on the judge’s decision, and 15 days to remove their belongings, according to Vermont Legal Aid.

Even if they find a place and are able to move, Packard-Stange said she would continue pursuing legal action against Voorhees.

“Me and Bob feel so bad about being old,” Packard-Stange said. “That is one of the reasons why I’m going through with this, because I want people to know how hurtful this is, that you can be treated in a way that makes you feel like nobody wants you.”

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