Seven community members have filed complaints with the state Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation’s Real Estate Board in response to the planned apartments at Midtown Row, which will include four bedroom dormitory-style housing aimed toward students and young professionals.
Terance Wehle, a Williamsburg resident who started the movement against the housing development and filed a complaint of his own, says that by targeting that younger audience, the project’s developer, Broad Street Realty, is blocking protected groups from applying for housing and thus violating the state’s fair housing laws. He specifically pointed to Broad Street Realty CEO Michael Jacoby’s response when asked if a portion of the apartments would be for non-students during a city planning commission hearing on the project last September.
“We have to follow fair housing guidelines, which means technically anybody can live there, but the units and our leasing program are designed for students, primarily,” said Jacoby at the hearing. “ The primary reason is, can you imagine a 53-year-old gray-haired guy like myself padding through the halls with a bunch of co-eds, and how they might feel about that?”
