Less Money, More Problems: Crime and Income Disparity in Greater Homestead

According to US News and World Reports using 2010  figures from the Department of Justice, the less you have, the more you have to lose, apparently. Looking at the correlation between property crime and household income levels, the DOJ found that those with a household income of less than $7,500 were subject to the highest rate of property crime--200 per 1,000 households. Households earning $50,000 or more were victims of far fewer incidents of property crime--less than 140 per 1,000 households. See the graphic to the left to get a better sense of the data.

HIH used ZipAtlas to bring below poverty level numbers into perspective for the Greater Homestead zip codes. One can quickly discern the more affluent areas in blue from the less affluent areas in red and everything in between.  This Google Map with poverty data overlay reflects zip code 33031, Redland and Redland Edge areas as having the least household poverty at 4.79% followed closely by zip code 33035, Keys Gate at 5.23%.  Conversely, Florida City in red has 34.54% of households below the poverty level. 
According to the Census Bureau Quick Facts the City of Homestead has a median income of $38,724 below Miami-Dade county average of $43,957 and well below the Florida average of $47,827.  The map reflects an obvious disparity between haves and have nots with no meaningful geographic boundary with the exception of the Florida Turnpike. The highway by itself is not a significant deterrence as well as the gates for the communities limiting access to residents and authorized visitors. The contrast in income may be indicative of why sporadic crime waves occur in Keys Gate as recently experienced in North Gate.  It appears Keys Gate is a relatively more affluent enclave surrounded by significant poverty and nothing short of more community vigilance, activation of the AT&T Protection One alarm system by residents and increased police patrols is going to work to minimize property crime in the area.