“This issue will destroy New York City...”

 
It was an ordinary day in September when New York City's mayor Eric Adams declared that his city was about to be "destroyed". More than 110,000 migrants had arrived in the previous months, and 10,000 more were to follow.

Their arrivals pushed the city's unhoused population to a record high and the shelter system far beyond capacity. Hotels, schools, and tents were turned into shelters. One of the largest emergency shelters was placed on an island. An island that even many New Yorkers have never been to.