Neighbors said the three were some of the homeless men who spent the summers in nearby parks or in gangways and spent their winters squatting wherever they could stay warm.



They were in their 50s, according to Luis Echevarra, 47, a neighbor who lives a block away. Echevarra said he tried to get them to go to a shelter and bought them food occasionally.



"I can't do much for them if they don't do nothing for themselves," he said.



The men began squatting in the wood frame house next door shortly after a family moved out, according to two girls who were throwing snowballs in front of a house next door Monday evening. One of the girls' family members had called police, as they were afraid to have the men living nearby.



Area North detectives have opened a death investigation.