24 Years of Marriage on July 4, Couple No Longer Homeless

Vegas veteran, wife go from tent to home
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
By KEITH ROGERS
June 25, 2015

Air Force veteran Mark McGrath was among the ranks of Southern Nevada’s 692 homeless veterans until he and his wife, Jennifer, made the move to permanent housing in April thanks to a HELP USA program.

“If it wasn’t for this program we would still be sleeping in the desert,” Jennifer, 45, said Thursday, sitting on a couch at the nonprofit’s Genesis Apartments on North Main Street.

“We were across the street from the Salvation Army in a tent. So we went from having two backpacks. Now we’ve got a bed, we’ve got a couch, a TV. We’ve got dishes, and I’ve still got him,” she said.

The couple will celebrate 24 years of marriage on July 4, a thought that brought tears of joy to Mark’s weathered face while she spoke about how they are trying to live independently again after a series of setbacks that included job losses and surgeries since the recession took hold six years ago.

A former F-4 fighter jet crew chief stationed at the now-closed George Air Force Base in Victorville, Calif., he moved to Las Vegas 25 years ago to work in the plaster trade. His last union job ended when his workplace was shut down in 2009, about the time Jennifer was laid off from her job in an auto parts store.

A caseworker for the VA Southern Nevada Healthcare System’s Community Resource and Referral Center placed them in HELP USA’s transitional housing program Dec. 1. They “graduated” April 21 under a program that allows them to pay 30 percent of his VA-supported income toward permanent housing while they build savings and seek employment.
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