Celebrating AAPI Heritage Month: Meet the Resident Leaders at LaGuardia Houses Addition 

Close to the heart of Chinatown sits LaGuardia Houses Addition, a NYCHA senior development where a large majority of residents are ethnically Chinese. 

Among the more than 180 residents who call the 16-story building home, over 78 percent are of Asian ethnicity. The strong representation of Asian culture at this Lower East Side development is reflected in everything from decorations inside the senior center to the composition of the resident association, which is fully comprised of Chinese-speaking members.   

As the nation marks Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in May, the contributions of Asian residents are celebrated in communities big and small from coast to coast.   

At LaGuardia Addition, Fai Chan is a 28-year resident who has served fellow Chinese immigrants and other Asian senior citizens as President of the building’s resident association for about 20 years. He is joined on the board by Vice President Shui Heung Lau, a 29-year resident; Secretary Hui Xing Huang, a 30-year resident; Sergeant at Arms Rong Bai Liang, a resident since 2019; and Treasurer Qun Feng Huang.  

For Mr. Chan, a retired food service worker, leading his development’s resident association (RA) has been an opportunity to not only serve his local senior community but a way to keep busy and stay active outside of his apartment.  

“I see it like a job which helps to sharpen my mind and it gives me things to do,” Mr. Chan said through a Chinese language interpreter. “I feel like I’m contributing to my community.” 

Throughout his time as a resident leader, Mr. Chan has sought to make life a little easier for his neighbors by assisting them with various tasks and helping report issues to the property management office if they need to get a leak fixed or apartment repair completed.  

“I just want to help out,” he said. “I try to assist them with anything I can to help improve their quality of life.”  

NYCHA Community Coordinator Charisse King, who works with Mr. Chan to respond to resident issues, said the longtime RA President is dedicated to getting things done for the LaGuardia Addition community and collaborates with residents to fulfill tasks.  

“He stands for nurturing his community with support and empowerment by enriching seniors’ and other residents’ lives in the process,” Ms. King noted.   

The RA board members see their role primarily as helping to preserve a comfortable living environment for fellow residents, many of whom are elderly and face mobility issues. Among its priorities, the board seeks to make sure residents’ voices are heard by gathering neighbors together when a meeting notice is posted about a NYCHA project or program impacting the development.  

As members of a fully Chinese-representative board for a majority Asian community, the resident leaders concur that they are well suited to address the needs and concerns of native Chinese speakers at LaGuardia Addition. 

“As a Chinese representative for the community, I think I can better serve the residents because I know and understand their needs,” Mr. Chan stated. “There’s also better communication because we speak the same language.” 

Along with his role on the RA, Mr. Chan has become a familiar face to residents through his years of service as a floor captain for the Elderly Safe-at-Home program, which provides on-site social service assistance and crime prevention and intervention services to seniors. The floor captains make occasional visits to apartments as part of their volunteer role to act as the eyes and ears for their neighbors.   

“I treat it as my daily exercise,” Mr. Chan quipped. 

Door-to-door engagement with community members is nothing new for the development’s RA leaders, who have worked to aid fellow residents in various ways over the years, including distributing food, hand sanitizer, and masks during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

While Mr. Chan and his board colleagues see such efforts as part of their duty, the resident community is not shy in expressing its appreciation, as evidenced by the number of residents who attended a gathering of the leadership one recent morning.