An ostrich leather clutch bag is on sale in a designer store at the trendy Old Biscuit Mill complex in Woodstock for more than R40,000. Nearby, well-heeled patrons sip lattes at one of Cape Town's top coffee shops. If they feel peckish, they can pop into The Test Kitchen, rated one of the best restaurants in the world.Just a stone's throw away, in the shadow of the Old Biscuit Mill, lives Brenda Smith, who has called Bromwell Street her home since the day she was born 75 years ago.Tomorrow, Smith and 27 other people, mostly women and children, are set to be evicted.story_article_left1Their homes - five semidetached houses - were bought by Woodstock Hub, a subsidiary of Trematon Capital Investments, which owns prime property from Langebaan to the Cape Town CBD. The homes were valued at more than R3.5-million by the city.Two years ago, said residents, the previous property owner stopped collecting the R1900 rent. Panic set in as they realised they might join other victims of gentrification of Cape Town's oldest suburb.Western Cape MEC for human settlements Bonginkosi Madikizela has offered to help Smith - who lives with 17 family members in one house - with a home in Delft more than 30km away.Smith met the criteria because of her age and she "deserves to be prioritised", said Madikizela's spokesman, Zalisile Mbali. "Regardless of which area people are being evicted from, it is a cause for a concern because it will mean they will be homeless together with their families and add more numbers to the ever-growing number of people who are still waiting to be assisted by government," said Mbali.Graeme Beukes, who has also lived in Bromwell Street all his life, said the first contact they had with the new owners was when lawyers arrived with court orders to vacate. They tried to fight the eviction, but like dozens of other families from Woodstock, they lost the battle.Woodstock Hub claims the tenants have failed to pay rent since May last year. And residents could not provide evidence of a rental agreement.Beukes said there had always been an understanding between them and the previous owners about the rent.Keri Hattingh, who describes herself as the legal manager of "a group of companies" that includes Woodstock Hub, would not respond to questions about whether it had asked residents to pay rent since purchasing the homes."The ordinary course of the law has been followed. An eviction isn't an easy matter for either side," said Hattingh.full_story_image_hleft1"So a sensitive approach has been taken and it's now reaching its end and naturally at the end there is going to be hype around the ultimate result. But ... it's a process that needs to be regulated by the court and it's not us that decided on how the eviction is going to play out."Hattingh said proper procedures had been followed."So if we're going to go into the fairness of the legal system, then that's where we're going to be at. But certainly there's no conversation to be had from this side of the table when you haven't been involved in the process from the beginning," said Hattingh.In Beukes's living room, his 11-year-old daughter and nine-year-old son huddle next to a heater watching 7de Laan.The single father of three earns R6,000 month and said it was difficult to make ends meet."This gentrification is a kwaai thing for job creation," he said. "But the heritage ... Some of these houses are probably over 100 years old."Tomorrow he might be out on the streets with his children.Smith said she did not mind moving from her childhood home. But as she gazed up at Devil's Peak, tears filled her eyes. "Delft is a bit far," she said softly.hymana@timesmedia.co.za..