The Interbay Place building on the east side of 15th Avenue blends in with the boxy architecture that dominates most new construction in Seattle. It has a courtyard, meeting areas and 97 apartments.

Champagne said his hall is quiet, which he appreciates. His apartment is smaller than a hotel room, but has its own kitchenette. He gets good light in the afternoon from a west-facing window. The noise of cars below doesn’t bother him much.

His voice is scratchy and he rarely sits still, swiping away his long hair or tugging at his ear. He shows flashes of anger occasionally, but quickly apologizes. The sciatica that once bothered him so much hasn’t flared up as much lately, he said.

Since Champagne moved in, Bess has seen nothing but progress, albeit incremental. “His hygiene has improved consistently,“ he said. “He combs his hair, he brushes his hair. He’s looking at being a better human being.” Bess remembers how happy his client was when he first got his own set of keys.

Champagne said his apartment has made him feel “pretty much stabilized. … Every day’s the same. I’m not needing of anything.” Six days a week, he takes the D line bus from near his apartment to the SoDo neighborhood, where he receives a dose of methadone for his addiction. He heads downstairs to eat most of his meals, which are provided by staff. Sometimes, though, he’ll drink coffee and eat oatmeal in his room.

Over images of Champagne sitting on the street, KOMO’s Johnson says, “Sooner or later they die on the streets, in tents or in low-barrier, tiny houses. To leave them alone is to shame ourselves and that’s why they need help.” In reality, Champagne has received — and continues to receive — help.

But for Bess, the success of grocery shopping at Target is undercut by the language and context of KOMO’s piece. “The point of view that was done was completely wrong,” he said.

KOMO declined to comment for this story.

Permanent supportive housing is far and away the preferred solution to chronic homelessness, said Daniel Malone, DESC’s executive director. “It’s a highly desirable intervention for folks because it’s what they want,” he said. “They want housing. It just so happens that it’s housing that’s designed for people who have a lot of needs and need a lot of support.”

As proof of just how much people want housing, Malone points to the opening of 1811 Eastlake in 2005, a DESC permanent housing project that caters to people with chronic alcoholism. DESC filled all 75 slots after speaking with just 79 chronically homeless people. Even the four who did not accept would express interest later, Malone said.

The restraints on developing permanent supportive housing are time and money. Malone said opening such a facility takes 2 1/2 to three years, from planning to opening. Development costs of Interbay were $20.1 million, but it’s also a significant expense to maintain operations.

Robert Champagne at his low-income housing studio apartment at Interbay on Friday, March 22, 2019 in Seattle.

The city currently has several thousand permanent supportive housing units like the one that Champagne calls home. Malone estimates Seattle needs at least 4,500 more. That could cost up to a billion dollars, he said.

At the same time, it likely costs the city and region about the same amount in emergency resources to respond to homelessness, Malone said. The challenge is connecting the cost of building supportive housing to the cost of not building it.

“While there has been a significant body of research on the actual cost effectiveness of this kind of housing … the money doesn’t flow really neatly for the purpose of using the offsets on creating more of this kind of housing,” he said.

Since its airing, Seattle is Dying has generated impassioned response throughout the region and well beyond Seattle. It’s been shared thousands of times and viewed by millions. Papers in Tacoma, Portland, Sacramento and elsewhere have written about it. Sarah Palin, onetime Republican nominee for vice president, said it showed “our beautiful Emerald City succumbing to socialist policies.” Former Arkansas governor and TV personality Mike Huckabee called it “must-see.” Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli used it to compare Seattle to Venezuela.

Meanwhile, Champagne is working to maintain his normalcy. “I want to just be the best I can be and live as most optimally as I can,” he said.