The Housing Executive, Northern Ireland's public housing authority, spent £45 million re-housing families forced from their homes through sectarian intimidation, writes Dan Keenan, Northern News Editor.
The figure, 50 per cent higher than the previous year, was published in the Housing Executive's latest annual report which also said that more than 1,200 had been forced from their homes.
Mr Paddy McIntyre, the executive's chief executive, said it was not right that such large-scale spending be diverted when housing resources could be "better used elsewhere".
Protestant families who say they were intimidated from the Torrens estate in north Belfast last month, protested at Stormont yesterday claiming that others in interface areas of Belfast also faced regular intimidation.
Under a scheme to assist intimidation victims, a family forced to move can receive the current market value for their homes without having to put it on the market.
The Special Purchase of Evacuated Dwelling (SPED) scheme comes into operation when the PSNI confirms to the Housing Executive that the occupiers are at risk.
Mr McIntyre said: "In the past year, the Housing Executive had yet again dealt with the fall-out from intimidation in the community. We helped 1,245 households who were homeless as a direct result of intimidation and a further £45 million was needed to support the SPED scheme."
The executive reported that during the year 2002-2003, it invested £260 million in the North's economy and managed a Housing benefit budget of more than £350 million.