Like many UC Berkeley students, Aaron Glover is overworked. He’s got a full schedule of classes as an integrative biology major, holds down a job at the campus library and fills his off hours with homework.

But at the end of the day, instead of heading back to a home in Berkeley, Glover faces another exhausting task: a 30-mile commute to Benicia by bus, BART and car. He spends 2½ hours a day commuting.

With housing prices sky-high in an ultracompetitive market, Glover can’t afford to live near where he goes to school — so he’s staying with his parents. He’s one of many UC Berkeley students who, given the alternative of paying bloated housing costs for a tiny living space, are commuting from afar.

“It’s been a big strain on me,” said Glover, who transferred to Berkeley last year from Napa Valley College. “My first year, I looked back on all the hours I had just wanted to read my textbook and study and make sure I understood the homework. It just never happened. ... It’s emotionally taxing.”

Rents for studio and one-bedroom apartments in Berkeley increased by more than 20 percent from 2014 to 2015, according to city data. The median rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $2,400 a month, a $250 leap from last year.

According to Nick Traylor, a division manager for Berkeley’s rent stabilization program, when a lease turns over, students’ rents can rise $500 to $1,000 a month.

“This is a long-term crisis,” said Karen Chapple, a UC Berkeley professor of city and regional planning. “Unless we take definitive action, it will be much worse in 10 years.”

Berkeley provides on-campus housing for all incoming freshmen and new transfer students, but after that first year, most students must find their own places to stay, often off campus. Not everyone succeeds.

Kevin Sabo, former president of the UC Student Association, spent a semester homeless because he couldn’t afford to pay rent.

“It totally turned the hierarchy of needs on its head,” Sabo said. “I can ... be homeless because I need textbooks and I need to pay tuition.”

In fall 2014, he slept at a friend’s apartment free of charge. On nights that he couldn’t stay with his friend, he would sleep in his car or in UC Berkeley’s student government offices.

“We’ve been trying to get folks to realize that this is an extensive problem,” said Sabo, who graduated in 2016 with a degree in peace and conflict studies. “This is a full-blown crisis that a sizable percent of students are dealing with.”

UC Berkeley spokeswoman Janet Gilmore said the campus is well aware that housing is a top concern for students, especially given the cost of living in the Bay Area.

“We are committed to doing everything that we can to assist new and continuing students with their housing needs,” she said in an email.

UC Berkeley estimates housing costs for students living off-campus to be $7,546 for the school year. A 2015 study by the real estate website Trulia estimated the true cost to be $12,375, assuming two students shared a two-bedroom apartment.

It’s not just cost of rent — it’s availability of housing for students. UC Berkeley and the 10-campus UC system have turned their attention to housing in recent years.

UC Berkeley is building a new dorm on the south side of campus to house 770 students by fall 2018. UC plans to add 14,000 more beds systemwide by 2020, President Janet Napolitano said in January.

UC Berkeley welcomed an additional 750 students to campus this fall. To accommodate the growth, for the first time 100 students will be housed in Oakland, at Mills College and Holy Names University. The universities will shuttle the students to and from campus free of charge.

Still, many students think taking on the housing crisis will require a greater effort from both the city and university. Graduate student Tyler Barnum, chair of the Graduate Assembly’s Housing Committee, suggested loans to help students with security deposits and moving stipends, and urged more construction of new housing.

Junior Tyler Long and his roommate had to pay $9,000 to secure an apartment for the school year. They rent a two-bedroom apartment in West Berkeley for $3,000 a month. To sign a lease, they had to pay first month’s rent plus a $6,000 security deposit. Long said he dipped into his savings and asked family members for help to gather enough cash. He and his roommate converted their living room into a bedroom and are renting it to a third student to reduce their monthly costs.

Barnum said hefty fees up front to sign a lease can be severe barriers to entry for students who are apartment hunting. Half of UC Berkeley graduate students spend about 50 percent of their income on housing, according to Barnum. One in 5 spend 65 percent of their income on housing.

“The main sacrifice students make coming to Berkeley is their financial stability. ... We’re hitting a ceiling where grad students can’t pay any more to live in Berkeley,” Barnum said. “We’re going to be losing people at Berkeley — they will go elsewhere.”

Stress about housing has many at Berkeley unable to focus on student life. Rachel Regelein, a UC Berkeley senior studying Egyptian archaeology, has commuted from her Santa Cruz home for her entire time as a Berkeley student. She and her husband share a studio for $900 a month. The couple couldn’t find comparable rents anywhere around campus or in the greater Bay Area.

Regelein spends some nights sleeping at a friend’s apartment in Berkeley, and three or four days a week commuting, often spending five hours in the car for a single day of school.

“If it’s a commute day, there’s no way I will get any homework done, I am so exhausted. It cuts down on the hours of productivity I have,” Regelein said. “Plus being away from home a couple nights a week is hard on my family. It’s been a big sacrifice.”

UC Berkeley senior Katie Revilla also decided to commute rather than struggle to pay for housing. She drives every morning from her parents’ home in Manteca (San Joaquin County) or her brother’s house in San Jose, often hitting rush-hour traffic and rarely staying around to see friends or study on campus.

“I’m focused on everything else besides school, and it’s taking away from my experience of being a student,” Revilla said. “Just trying to find a place to live and the commute, I’m exhausted.”

Libby Rainey is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: metro@sfchronicle.com