Erkin Özay is a registered architect and an urbanist with a research focus on urban asset distribution practices and their spatial impacts on the city, with a specific concentration on the design of educational environments. His Buffalo-based projects include student collaborations to develop housing for refugees, in collaboration with the International Institute of Buffalo and Broadway-Fillmore Neighborhood Housing Services. Özay implements strategies to provide better and more affordable housing to meet the needs of newly-resettled refugees.