Valhalla Park is a working-class neighbourhood situated about 15 km from Cape Town city centre, created as a coloured group area during the apartheid regime. Although the period’s spatial segregations are no longer in operation, financial limitations have prevented people from moving out of the areas.

Most residents of Valhalla Park were classified as ‘coloured’ during the apartheid era, and are mostly poor, with 36% of the population unemployed, though this number has risen over the last 20 years. Valhalla have backyard shacks (also known as bungalows or hokkies) which accommodate either extended family members or paying sub-tenants.

Aside from backyard shacks and formal houses, there are also two informal settlements in Valhalla Park. Named Sewende Laan (Seventh Avenue) and Agste Laan (Eighth Avenue), they were built as a response to serious overcrowding in the neighbourhood.