On a Wing and a Prayer

And UGM’s men’s shelter was in need of about $2 million worth of structural re-engineering to guarantee that it could continue to safely house the mission’s many residents and programs. UGM could thank the 6.8-magnitude earthquake that had hit Seattle a year earlier for that little slap in the face. When the city inspected the $850,000 worth of damage that the building sustained in the quake, officials decided that they couldn’t certify the building as safe unless it underwent a retrofit, which involved starting in the basement and reinforcing the walls with crisscrossing steel beams all the way to the top.