Cities Centre, University of Toronto/University of Malta, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Cyrus Vakili-Zad is an urban sociologist interested in housing and urban development. He has been in and out of the academia in the United States, Canada and Malta; he has worked for several years as a policy advisor for the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs and the Toronto Housing Authority. During his tenure, he has been involved in many programmes dealing with community development and revitalization of neighbourhoods in some of these public housing projects. His professional involvements included projects replacing slums with social housing; and therefore, have a very deep knowledge, understanding and keen interest in how these slums formed and how they were replaced. He is currently a research associate at the Cities Centre, University of Toronto. Vakili-Zad has written several books and published many articles in professional journals in the field of housing, homelessness and gender equality.