{"id":126974,"date":"2026-02-08T18:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T18:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/126974\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T18:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T18:26:08","slug":"mumbling-homeless-woman-left-to-spend-night-on-nyc-sidewalk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/126974\/","title":{"rendered":"Mumbling homeless woman left to spend night on NYC sidewalk"},"content":{"rendered":"

A mumbling homeless woman was left out in deadly near-zero temperatures on a Manhattan sidewalk overnight \u2014 with first responders telling The Post they couldn\u2019t help her<\/a> under city guidelines.<\/p>\n

The unidentified woman was wearing a hooded sweatshirt, slippers and two blankets as she clipped her nails, put lotion on her hands and talked to herself while hunkered down on East 34th Street across from NYU Langone Hospital as temperatures neared 0 degrees early Sunday.<\/p>\n

She refused repeated offers for help from EMS workers and cops \u2014 who explained to The Post they had to leave the shivering vagrant in the extremely dangerous bone-chilling weather because she could answer basic questions \u2014 a factor that helps meet the threshold of Dem Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s controversial homeless policies.<\/p>\n

A homeless woman camps out in near-zero temperatures overnight on East 34th Street in Manhattan. Kevin C Downs for NY Post<\/p>\n

The woman tells The Post she is doing \u201can investigation.\u201d Kevin C Downs for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cShe knew the year, 2026,\u201d a firefighter told The Post. \u201cShe knew where she was: New York, Manhattan. She knew who the president is. Since she has mental capacity, there is nothing we can do. We can\u2019t force her to go inside. We can\u2019t kidnap her.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people can survive,\u201d he acknowledged of the situation. \u201cSome don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayor Zohran Mamdani has come under fire for not forcibly removing the homeless from frigid streets. Erik Pendzich\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

An EMS worker at the scene added, \u201cI don\u2019t want to leave her out here.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy hands are tied.\u201d<\/p>\n

The woman was first spotted on East 34th Street by The Post around 9:30 p.m. Saturday and remained there at least till 3 a.m. Sunday \u2014 when she took out a broom and began sweeping the sidewalk as the mercury hovered at 3 degrees.<\/p>\n

She was still on the street Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Mamdani has come under fire for refusing to clear Big Apple homeless encampments and forcibly remove vagrants during the ongoing deadly cold snap, which has killed at least 17 people<\/a> so far.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, temperatures in the five boroughs were colder than in Antarctica<\/a>, with the first Extreme Cold Warning in 22 years issued for millions in the New York metro area, officials said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith freezing temperatures expected again this weekend, I am writing to ask: What measures will be in place to ensure every New Yorker is in a warm place?\u201d Democratic City Councilman Oswald Feliz of The Bronx wrote in a recent letter to City Hall.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpecifically: Will outreach efforts be intensified to ensure every homeless New Yorker is reached?\u201d<\/p>\n

When The Post spotted the female vagrant out in the frost-bite-inducing weather Saturday, it called 311, and an operator said they had gotten \u201ca lot of code blue calls\u201d because of the potentially killer weather.
EMS arrived around 11 p.m.<\/p>\n

A homeless encampment remains on West 30th Street on Saturday. James Keivom<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not homeless,\u201d the woman told the first responders, giving her name as \u201cMs. Aimly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The shivering East 34th Street vagrant wraps herself in blankets to try to brave the cold. Kevin C Downs for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a home,\u201d she said, pointing to bags containing her only possessions.<\/p>\n

A paramedic asked, \u201cIs it cold outside?\u201d<\/p>\n

She replied, \u201cIt\u2019s not cold.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s freezing,\u2019\u2019 she said. \u201cStop harassing me. I don\u2019t to go to prison.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three FDNY vehicles arrived at one point, as well as NYPD cops who stopped by to check on the shaking woman.<\/p>\n

An FDNY worker gave her a blanket and hand warmers, which she took but did not unwrap.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy don\u2019t you help someone who can\u2019t walk? I can walk. I am fine,\u2019\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n

The workers eventually left, saying they could do nothing under the current city guidelines.<\/p>\n

But despite the emergency responders\u2019 assessment that she was mentally capable, based on her answers to a handful of basic questions, the woman appeared to slip in and out of coherent conversation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not a hospital,\u201d she told The Post, pointing to NYU Langone across the street. \u201cThat\u2019s a repost.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe entire area from 28th to 37th street is a repost,\u201d she blurted out.<\/p>\n

The man working behind the counter at the Bread and Butter deli near the woman told The Post that the woman had been living outside the store for three years.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes we give her food,\u201d the man said.<\/p>\n

When The Post approached her, she said, \u201cI am doing an investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to talk to a reporter. Please stop harassing me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A mumbling homeless woman was left out in deadly near-zero temperatures on a Manhattan sidewalk overnight \u2014 with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126975,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[194,2000,75,57,9,56,63,65,64,58,8993,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-126974","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-fdny","9":"tag-homelessness","10":"tag-manhattan","11":"tag-metro","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-nyc-headlines","16":"tag-nyc-news","17":"tag-us-news","18":"tag-winter","19":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}