As Homeowners Move On, Fire Moves In

All three were just looking for a night's shelter.

But on Jane Avenue, Gordy Yoesting was convinced he'd found a home.

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Yoesting spent hours hauling garbage out of 1430. He hung a Miller Lite poster in the kitchen and set photos of his sons alongside the television. A roommate provided a recliner and an armchair.

"It looked like an honest man's home," says Elmer Crawley, his half-brother.

Yoesting insisted it would stay that way.

"I'm buying me a house, Mom. You can come live with me," Carol Lechnyr says he told her.

Land Bank officials say they sometimes sell to tenants who can show they'll bring a deteriorating house up to the building code. But with many houses worth just a few thousand dollars, the agency usually keeps them and tears them down.

Yoesting, though, never made an offer for 1430 Jane, said Doug Weiland, the executive director.