Lehigh Acres Gazette checked with the Lee County Sheriff’s Office. The LCSO numbers show the overall crime rate in Lee County is down, but when you take a closer look at the community Lehigh Acres, which falls in what the sheriff’s office calls its East district, crime is on the rise according to homicide numbers.
In 2012, there were 7 homicides, 6 in 2013, 4 in 2014 and officially 8 so this year, but that doesn’t include the 4 most recent victims from this week. That would bring the total to 12 homicides in 2015. That’s three times as many as last year and that’s with five months left to go.
Another statistics on homicide numbers is that 92% of the homicides have happen in the South West portion of Lehigh Acres.
This is area were the majority of the single family and duplexes are section 8 housing in Lehigh Acres.
Starting in 2007 Fort Myers housing authority started to force people from Fort Myers into the single family and duplexes in Lehigh Acres, because of the total torn down and replacement of section 8 apartments and duplexes in Fort Myers.
Section 8 housing is a voucher program by the federal government. The majority of the program is for assisting very low-income families, the elderly, and the disabled to afford decent, safe, and sanitary housing in the private market.
But is it really safe in Lehigh Acres?
Less than year later crime exploded in the South West section in Lehigh Acres. LCSO states that they have had some hot spots of crime activity in the past.