Satin Fye believes Florida House District 109 needs a representative who understands the daily struggles of working people because she has lived many of them herself.
Fye, a Miami native, union organizer, longtime flight attendant and mother of two, is running to represent the district in the Florida House. During an interview on the Can We Talk Podcast powered by Hy-Lo News, she outlined a platform focused on affordable housing, public education, support for small businesses, family leave and better-paying jobs.
“I’m a working person who plans to fight for working-class people and to restore the dignity of everyone in this district,” Fye said.
Fye was born and raised in Miami and graduated from Miami Northwestern Senior High School. She has worked as a flight attendant for a major airline for approximately 20 years and serves as a union shop steward. She is also an autism advocate and the mother of a son on the autism spectrum.
Her family’s public service history includes a mother who retired from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and another parent who worked as a tenant-rights activist.
Fye previously served as community engagement chairperson for the Miami-Dade Democratic Black Caucus. She has also organized around voting and worked to mobilize residents during local and national elections.
“Our community needs an organizer, and they need something different,” Fye said. “They need someone who is closest to the problem but also understands and can provide some solutions to everyday working people’s issues.”
Fye said Florida’s rising cost of living has placed homeownership, financial security and independence out of reach for many residents.
“Things are super expensive. Gas is high. Insurance is high. You can barely afford to move out on your own,” she said. “These jobs aren’t paying well. We need more people-powered policy.”
One housing proposal Fye said she would pursue is a state tax credit of at least $50,000 for first-time homebuyers who purchase property in their communities.
“We seem to love to give tax credits to corporations and developers, so we should be giving them to our seniors as well as our first-time homebuyers,” Fye said. “I’m not talking about just a tax credit of $10,000. I’m talking about a nice, hefty, at least $50,000 tax credit.”
Fye also wants Florida lawmakers to create a clearer definition of workforce housing. She said developments are frequently labeled as workforce housing even when the rent remains unaffordable for teachers and other working residents.
She proposed amending the Live Local Act to require that rent for workforce housing not exceed 30% of a resident’s income.
“If the teachers make $68,000, no more than 30% of that teacher’s salary should go toward their rent,” Fye said. “We need actual policy in place that is true workforce housing.”
Fye noted that renters can be asked to pay an application fee, a security deposit and multiple months of rent before moving into an apartment.
“People don’t have that,” she said. “That’s a small down payment on a house.”
Education would be another priority for Fye, who said teachers should not have to regularly spend their own money on classroom supplies. She also wants schools to have more funding for programs and services that support children with disabilities.
Fye said students with exceptionalities need reliable access to paraprofessionals, registered behavior technicians, applied behavior analysis therapists, speech-language pathologists and occupational therapists during school hours.
“As a mother, I understand advocating for children and children’s resources and bringing more funding into our public schools,” she said.
Fye opposes efforts to remove or minimize Black history in classroom instruction.
“Black history is American history,” Fye said. “Making sure that our children have access to proper curriculum is important.”
She also called for teachers to receive better pay and greater job security.
On school vouchers, Fye said parents have the right to choose where their children attend school, but she questioned using taxpayer money to finance private education while traditional public schools remain underfunded.
“Why use taxpayers’ dollars to go toward private schools when that wasn’t something that we agreed on?” Fye asked. “We’re removing public funding, and we’re diverting it toward private education.”
Fye said she briefly enrolled her son in a private school but withdrew him after determining the school was not required to follow his individualized education program, commonly known as an IEP. Public schools are legally required to provide the services outlined in a student’s IEP.
“If our public schools are experiencing cuts and they can’t properly staff our students, where does that leave our vulnerable population and our Title I schools?” she asked.
Fye said Florida’s voucher program needs stronger oversight. She alleged that some families have used voucher money for expenses that do not have a clear educational purpose.
“It’s very problematic, and we need some oversight over the vouchers,” she said.
Supporting small businesses is another part of Fye’s platform. She pointed to businesses along Northwest 22nd Avenue that she said have been hurt by long-term construction and insufficient communication about the work.
“A lot of our small businesses are struggling right now, and they need tax breaks,” Fye said.
She supports creating grants and microloan programs to help established businesses purchase equipment, hire employees and remain open during periods of disruption. Fye said eligibility requirements should consider a business’s operating history instead of relying exclusively on traditional credit scores.
“Maybe they don’t have the 720 credit score, but if your business has been in business for three years and you want to add an extra employee or buy new equipment, at least you can tap into that additional funding,” she said.
Fye described small businesses as part of Miami-Dade County’s economic ecosystem and said helping them survive should be a state priority.
Infrastructure and development are also concerns for Fye. She raised questions about a proposed data center in West Little River, including its potential effects on electricity costs, water use, air quality and noise.
“We are already a strained infrastructure, especially in West Little River,” Fye said. “There needs to be legislation around these data centers and regulation, and they don’t need to be in our communities close to people.”
Fye said the state must also invest more heavily in public transportation. She opposes reducing early-morning bus service used by residents traveling to work and supports pursuing federal, state and county partnerships to improve transit.
“We can’t afford for them to cut any more of our services,” she said. “We definitely should be investing in infrastructure and transportation.”
Fye said she would work with Republican lawmakers and organize in their districts to build support for mass transit and other policies affecting residents across Florida.
“We continue to demonize one side, but we don’t talk about what education looks like civically across the aisle to their constituents because it impacts them as well,” she said.
On property insurance, Fye said previous reforms have not provided enough relief to homeowners.
Fye said she was required to carry flood insurance on her first home in West Little River, despite her assertion that the property and surrounding neighborhood did not have a history of flooding. She wants the state to reassess flood-zone maps and examine why homeowners who make storm-resistant improvements do not always receive meaningful insurance savings.
“We do all this work, and there’s no relief,” Fye said. “That needs to be reevaluated. I’m tired of paying $6,000 for property insurance. It’s crazy.”
Fye also criticized the limited number of insurers willing to cover older homes. She said Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the state-backed insurer of last resort, was the only company willing to insure her property.
“That’s absolutely ridiculous,” she said. “It creates a monopoly.”
Fye opposes eliminating property taxes without a detailed plan to replace the lost revenue. She said such a change could lead to higher sales or gas taxes and cuts to essential local services.
“I don’t want to see trash on the street,” Fye said. “I don’t want to know that if I’m calling for fire rescue, what might take 20 minutes now may take an hour. I could be in a life-or-death situation.”
Fye said District 109 already faces significant financial strain and cannot afford additional reductions in government services.
“We are already a stressed and strained community financially,” she said. “We cannot take any more cuts.”
Fye said her union experience has prepared her to negotiate with people who have different political views. As a shop steward, she represents flight attendants across a workforce that includes conservatives and Republicans.
“I know how to build relationships with folks, and I know how to connect on kitchen-table issues,” Fye said.
She pointed to her union’s negotiation of a $6.3 billion contract, which she said made its flight attendants the highest paid in the industry. The agreement also included policies addressing family medical leave, paid parental leave, surrogacy and adoption.
“You want us to have babies, but you don’t have family-friendly policy around us having families, nor do you pay us well,” Fye said.
She wants Florida workers to have access to paid family and medical leave that can be used to care for children, spouses and aging parents.
“We need to fight for family medical leave as well as paid maternity leave,” she said. “We should be afforded just as much as our counterpart states.”
Fye also said Florida’s $15 minimum wage will not be enough for workers living in one of the nation’s most expensive states.
“We should be able to have a living wage,” she said. “Fifteen dollars an hour — that’s not going to cut it.”
District 109 includes Opa-locka, Gladeview, Westview, Liberty City, Allapattah, Overtown and portions of Miami Shores and Wynwood.
Fye said those communities have historically been underfunded and deserve the same public investment and amenities provided to surrounding areas.
“We are often counted out, and we are usually underinvested in,” Fye said. “We deserve just as much funding as our neighbors.”
“More importantly, we deserve to have nice things and beautify our communities,” she added. “I’m fighting for the restoration of our quality of life here in District 109.”
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