the poorly insulated homes became too expensive for their low income residents, and the crescents soon became notorious for being cold, damp and riddled with cockroaches and other vermin. Crime and drug abuse became significant problems in Hulme, as police did not patrol the long, often dark decks, due to the fact that they were not officially considered streets. The decks made muggings and burglary relatively easy, as any crime could be carried out in almost total privacy, with no hope for quick assistance from police below. The crescents became troublesome very shortly after their construction—within a decade, they were declared 'unfit for purpose', and several plans were drawn up that suggested various differing types of renovation and renewal for the blocks, including splitting the buildings into smaller, more manageable structures by removing sections. By 1984 the City Council, then landlord abandoned the Crescents entirely after which they became notorious. In the 1980s and 1990s many of these vacant deck-access flats were squatted and the area acquired a 'bohemian' reputation for its many punks, artists and musicians. During the late 1980s Viraj Mendis, an asylum seeker from Sri Lanka, sought the right of sanctuary in the Church of the Ascension in Hulme and remained there until arrested in January 1989. (For further information, see below, Religion; Church of England) Hulme in the 1990s and after The decision was made in the early 1990s to demolish Hulme's crescent blocks and replace them with low-rise flats and houses. The total amount of public and private money spent on improving Hulme and neighbouring Moss Side between 1990 and 2002 has exceeded £400 million. The area by then had become popular and desirable, containing a mix of council and privately owned housing. Birley Fields One part of Hulme, the Birley Fields (site of the former Birley High School, Chichester Road) has been partly developed for a series of office blocks and partly left as green urban waste land. The blocks house companies such as Michelin and Laing O'Rourke as well as the University of Manchester/IFL/Server Hotel data centre. The development site was the subject of a campaign by a group of Hulme residents which delayed the clearance of the site and the felling of a large tree. The "Birley Tree" was a 110-year-old Black Poplar. In 2009, Manchester Metropolitan University announced plans for the redevelopment of Birley Fields as the site of a new