By the 1980s, Eastgate Gardens had deteriorated due to lack of maintenance and repair. The crack epidemic of the 1980s drew a number of drug dealers to Marshall Heights, and violence and gunshots were common. Eastgate Gardens drew nationwide attention in January and February 1989 after four homicides and 14 shootings occurred there. "The Washington Post" later called Eastgate Gardens "ground zero for crime". Residents there lived in extreme poverty in densely crowded conditions. The project became so decrepit that by 1992 most units had been abandoned and boarded up. By 1995, the city was characterizing Eastgate Gardens as "D.C.'s most distressed housing development." A local gang of drug dealers, the Eastgate Crew, nicknamed the complex "Gates of Hell".