Bromwell Street residents have been told that they have no constitutional right to choose where they want to stay when provided with emergency accommodation.

This emerged on the second day of the relocation hearing between the Woodstock residents and City of Cape Town at the Western Cape High Court.

Representing the city‚ Karrisha Pillay SC‚ told the court the city had met the requirements as set out in the national housing code in providing adequate and reasonable emergency accommodation for the residents.

Families from seven homes in Bromwell street face eviction after theirs and other homes in the road were sold to a private developer. While some left willingly‚ other families qualified for subsidised or gap housing.

Only seven occupied houses remain‚ and the families who live there have rejected the emergency housing in

Wolwerivier on the outskirts of the city offered by the municipality. They have labeled the area unsafe and too far from amenities such as schooling and medical care.

But Pillay said Wolwerivier‚ which already housed 1‚122 people in 428 homes‚ met the prescribed requirements for emergency housing.

“Wolwerivier represents reasonable conduct on the part of the city to provide adequate emergency housing with regard to proximity or locality‚ and housing‚” she said.

“The city offered to help all the evicted tenants. Some qualified for subsidised house housing and others received gap housing. Wolwerivier complies with national standards for emergency housing for those require it.”

On Tuesday advocate Sheldon Magardie from Ndifuna Ukwazi Law Firm‚ representing the families‚ told the court that one of the residents had submitted a list of 60 properties closer than Wolwerivier‚ for the city to consider.

But Judge Leslie Weinkove was dismissive of the evidence‚ and said that Bromwell Street resident Chanel Commando’s affidavit and research was “not expert” because she worked as a kitchen assistant.

Pillay said that the city had provided residents detailed reasons outlining why each of the properties could not be used for emergency accommodation or relocation. Many of the properties were unavailable for development‚ while others were too small and some had been prescribed for social housing developments.

“The purpose of some of the land is to facilitate much needed social housing in the inner city. Should the Bromwell residents get it and halt plans for social housing for others? We don’t think so‚” Pillay said.

Commando said Wolwerivier was no place to put people‚ and that the judge should go out to inspect the site.

“The judge said I’m no expert‚ I’m a kitchen hand‚” said Commando.

“But I did more research than the city. They don’t know these places. They don’t go out and see what it’s like there for people who live there.”

“I hope the judge thinks of us as human beings.”

According to the Upper Woodstock Residents’ Association the suburb is one of the oldest in Cape Town.

 “It stretches from Cape Town docks (before land reclamation created the Foreshore‚ Woodstock was actually on the beach!) up to the slopes of Devil’s Peak‚ with characteristic Victorian architecture and street-scape‚’’ the association’s website explains.

 Mainly coloured families lived there for decades.

 Today the area has transformed into a trendy spot. Recently a modest home in Gympie Street hit the market for almost R2.5-million. For many years the street was associated with gangsters‚ drugs and crime.