Los Angeles police said they spent hours trying to get the man out from a crawl space under the El Sereno home, after the woman's family reported hearing noises for weeks.

The man - identified as 27-year-old Isaac Betancourt - "refused to leave" even as police used dogs and two rounds of gas, according to the resident's son-in-law Ricardo Silva.

"He wasn't scared of the dogs, and the first two attempts at gas didn't fish him out," he said.

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Mr Silva said they had been hearing noises for weeks, usually late at night, but they "just chucked it off to animals being under the house".

"The noises were kind of like knocking," he added.

"It was kind of like, as my wife was walking, they were kind of knocking back from under the house so she says, 'you know something's wrong'."

While it's not clear how long the man had been under the home, the family suspects he may have been staying for up to six months.

The space under the home is roughly 2ft high and has three entries, which the family believes he used to come and go.

"It's a bizarre thing, but it's not probably uncommon, you know," Mr Silva said.

"In this day and age, people are looking for shelter."