NYC Apartment Awash in Trash, Mice Shows Deepening Debt Crisis

The ripped bed cushion bulging out of the empty window frame was a telltale sign: It was going to be ugly inside the apartment on W. 207th St., Manhattan’s northernmost tip. Trash was strewn everywhere, the mattress covered in mold and the bathtub full of brown water. Mice and cockroaches have long been the unit’s only residents, according to neighbors.

The brick building in Inwood is one of roughly 8,100 rent-regulated apartment units managed by Pinnacle Group, overseen by New York City landlord Joel Wiener. Since the early 1990s, Wiener has amassed a fortune running cheap rentals, fixing them up and raising the rent where ...