This is the American Greed Podcast presented by CNBC. I'm Stacy Kich.

In this episode of American Greed, New York City's housing crisis hits home.

Tenants are not seen as human beings.

They're standing in the way of dollar signs.

The case of the landlord from hell.

He cared nothing about making 23 families homeless.

Stephen Cromman rules a Manhattan real estate empire.

More money, more property. He wanted it on.

But prosecutors have other accommodations in mind for him.

New York, a densely packed city of 8.5 million people is a world capital of finance,

culture, and cuisine. While many here take a stab at the

American Dream, few can find an affordable place to live. So New York has been in a housing crisis for more than 100 years.

All these people coming here, all these folks wanting to live here,

how do you have enough affordable housing? The government's answer is

rent regulation. For regulator departments rents can only increase a certain

percentage every year if at all keeping apartments lower than the market rate.

I am only here because of the rent regulations. If I didn't have it, I wouldn't be able to stay here.

But unfortunately what we've also seen is that a lot of landlords have abused the process.

Tenants who live in rent stabilized departments have really paid the price.

Among the city's most notorious landlords... stabilized apartments have really paid the price.

Among the city's most notorious landlords

is a Wheeler dealer named Stephen Cromman.

...