Lover of criminal eats in housing like this (10)
I believe the answer is:
enthusiast
'lover' is the definition.
(enthusiast is a kind of lover)
'criminal eats in housing like this' is the wordplay.
'criminal' indicates an anagram.
'housing' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'like this' becomes 'thus' (I've seen this before).
'eats'+'in'='eatsin'
'eatsin' is an anagram of 'eniast'.
'eniast' enclosing 'thus' is 'ENTHUSIAST'.
'of' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for enthusiast that I've seen before include "Ardent supporter" , "one not at all cool" , "Fan" , "buff" , "Devotee" .)