They are everywhere. Their makeshift cots are tucked into the corners of cluttered apartments. Travel-size toiletries and wrinkled clothing are recklessly strewn about the floor after an apparent explosion in their suitcase.

These are the students living life between leases: The couch surfing, closet sleeping, student nomads who, while in the hunt for housing, are homeless.

For a month and a half, Trevor Berman was without a home. It was either bunk up with a buddy or spend his summer at home.

"It was an easy choice," said the 21-year-old business major, chuckling.

But once Berman settled in on his friends couch, it wasn't so easy after all.

"I was constantly covered in cat hair," said Berman. "I never felt clean the entire time...the shower never got warm"

Brynna Meier, a senior at SF State, experienced similar quandaries. She stayed with various friends for almost two months while searching for an affordable room ­-- a feat that demanded all the energy she could muster.

"I would go to at least three open houses everyday and sent off probably 20 emails a day," Meier said.

After unsuccessfully hunting for an apartment from her hometown in Southern California, Meier headed back to San Francisco to stay on a friend's futon until she found a place of her own.

"They went out of town for a couple weeks so I was cat-sitting, and I'm allergic to cats," said the 22-year-old. "I was always coughing and itching, it was just miserable."

An uncomfortable eight weeks later, Meier found a room in the Castro. But what Meier thought would be the "apartment of her dreams" turned out to be her worst nightmare.

"I had to sue my roommate because he bailed on the lease," Meier said.

In January, Meier and two other roommates appeared on Judge Judy, the resilient court case show on CBS, to settle their case.

"It was total b------t. Everything was scripted, I mean they took away our evidence before we took the stand...Judge Judy is a huge b---h," Meier said.

After losing the case against her roommate, Meier is shortchanged and struggling to make ends meet with her landlord, who expects to be paid in full regardless of her roommate woes.

Others who find themselves in similar, precarious situations are looking to websites like couchsurfing.com or Craigslist to find free (or dirt cheap) temporary housing.

Couchsurfing.com boasts more than a million subscribers and represents some 232 countries around the world. While it is geared towards international travelers, it can be utilized by students to find a couch for a night or two.

"[The website] has very large number of members who are students," said Matthew Brauer, general manager of CouchSurfing in Berkeley.

According to Brauer, some members limit their couch to travelers, but because many are students themselves, an understanding of the house hunting woes in SF can mean an open couch.

But for some students, the hunt can lead to the comfortable (and often more affordable) suburbs of the East Bay.

Daniel Sheltzer, a 21-year-old child development major at SF State, moved back to the Bay Area after spending a semester in his hometown. But as Sheltzer began hunting for a room, he was overwhelmed with the expensive and competitive housing market of SF.

After just a few weeks looking on Craigslist, Sheltzer found a room in Walnut Creek.

The SF housing hunt is one that requires patience, fortune and a little creativity. The prices on the Peninsula are notoriously high, but even the sweetest deal in the East Bay can be soured by the costs of commuting.

But what Sheltzer would save on rent, he would spend on his commute. The BART/MUNI commuter combo costs him nearly $200 per month and takes him about an hour and a half to get to school four days a week.

"It was nice paying the cheap rent," Sheltzer said. "I had a job in Walnut Creek, but as soon as I quit, I realized how s----y it was to live outside the city."