An East Harlem man forced two women and a girl to prostitute themselves in a public housing apartment that he turned into a brothel, officials said Friday.

Taye Ellerby, 35, was arrested Thursday on charges that he kept the three — 24- and 21-year-old women and a missing 17-year-old from Connecticut — in a home in the Taft Houses on Madison Ave. near E. 112th St., the officials said.

Ellerby didn’t abduct his victims, police said. The trio were able to leave the apartment.

“They were frightened into staying there,” said one source.

Family members said Ellerby had a lot of girlfriends — but wasn’t a pimp. “How could he be holding them against their will if they can come and go?” asked his mom, Theresa, 57. “He’s a ladies man,” she said, noting he has six children by five women.

But neighbors said Ellerby brought johns to the apartment and a 3-year-old boy — one of Ellerby’s children — was often seen playing on the floor.

“He had (the girls) lined up sitting on the couch,” said neighbor Jeanette Martinez, 48. “High-class white men would come and pick one out. But when the girls did something wrong, you could hear them screaming.”

Read more: NY Daily News