L.A. tries to close off manhole where people live, nearly sealing someone inside
City crews were on the verge of welding a manhole cover shut in South Los Angeles Wednesday morning when a surprise discovery stopped them in their tracks.
“Hey, there’s someone down there,” one of the workers wearing an orange vest said, pointing into the sewer at West 88th Street and South Grand Avenue.
Seconds later, a man in his late 20s climbed out of the darkness, carrying with him a pink polka dot roller suitcase. He walked away and, minutes later, the bright light of a welding gun sealed the manhole shut.
It was a startling scene, even for residents like Denise Evans, who has seen it all over the years.
Evans, who lives a few houses down from the intersection where city crews, firefighters and police had gathered around 9 a.m., said she called 311 repeatedly for years about a raft of problems stemming from the homeless camps near her house. She’d reported fires, trash, homeless camps and, last year, people living in the sewer, she said.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-03-25/southla-sewer-homeless-residents-nearly-sealed-inside