I was in a similar situation a little while ago. Here's how I handled it:

Two weeks at the pacific tradewinds hostel. While there I found a 3 month room sublet in a house with other people in the crappy part of the Mission. From there, I found a 3 month studio sublet in Berkeley. From there, I found a permanent, large house sublet in a nice part of Oakland (Rockridge) with a roommate.

I don't have bad credit, but none of these places asked me for a credit check. Basically, what I am saying is, you will have a way easier time once you are actually here on the West Coast, and I strongly recommend the East Bay (Berkeley/Oakland) as a place to start rather than SF proper - cheaper, and landlords seem more eager to let tenants in without running proper background checks.

I moved to SF from NYC 2 months ago. I constantly checked the "rooms/shared" and "sublet/temp" sections on craiglist and sent numerous emails/calls.

I would recommend just finding anything you can, in your price range and in a central location for the time being. You are going to have a hard time doing this remotely, so find a cheap hotel/hostel.

Don't plan on working too much when you first get here, you should be spending any time you can looking at apts. and locking one down.

I was looking for something very specific (location) and eventually found it. The whole process took a few weeks, 2 remotely looking and 1 in SF.

Getting a place like that last-minute in SF is going to be very difficult. It's difficult enough finding apartments in SF even if you plan ahead.

+1 to CouchSurfing and AirBnB. Just keep an eye on Craigslist.

If you don't work in the city proper, consider living outside of the city. Emeryvill and Berkeley are good bets. Be weary of Oakland as some parts are sketchy and unsafe. South Bay has several cities too but that may end up being pricey.

Also check out CouchSurfing.org and AirBnb

Padmapper.com -- If you have bad credit, but have cash, you can offer more than just first and last to get around that typically.

hey, just wanted to let you know that your account must have been marked as spam, because all of your comments have been marked as dead for the past week or so.

I'm seeing this a lot, lately. People that are hell-banned for no apparent reason.

I think this is very unfair...

When you get a message "you are banned, go away" by accident you can at least contact the admin and argue against it. Now you don't even know it happened.

Yep, I agree. I think the system needs some human oversight, especially with the number of false positives I've seen.

(You're probably the 10th person I've contacted to let them know about a hellban.)

Maybe it's an idea for a site, www.amihellbanned.com :-) Or aremypostsvisibleorjustforme.com :p