stray cat?

Last night a young cat (maybe a year old?) appeare d on my front porch and was looking in the window and meowing. I love cats so I went outside to say hi. S/he was pretty tame, and came up to me and rubbed against me and let me pet him. Incidentally, we were having quite a powerful thunderstorm at the time. I sat on a chair on the porch and eventually he lept up on my lap and seemed comfortable there. However, he seemed to be very afraid of the storm, and kept burrowing his head btw my arm and side. Eventually one of my housemates came home and the sound of the car door slamming scared him off. I waited for 15 minutes but he didn't come back, so I went to bed. The next morning, would you believe it, he was back! There he was, sitting upright on the chair, waiting for me. I went back in to get a bowl of water (he really wanted to come inside the house too). Unfortunately I had to leave for work and I was so sad! My question is, what else can I do for this cat? He is without a collar, but looks very healthy. How can I figure out if he belongs to someone? One of my roommates doesn't like animals, so there wouldn't be much chance of adopting this little guy. I am thinking of putting out some food...but then if he does belong to someone, I don't want him to get used to getting food from me instead of his owners. Any ideas?

I would be inclined to feed him. I would also provide him with some sort of covered shelter on your porch like a small dog house? Or even a cat carrier with the door off and draped in a blanket. You may not be able to take him inside, but how about just making the outside more pleasant for him? He sounds like a neglected pet, instead of a stray and is definitely not feral.

Thanks hissy! Good advice. Well, there are some new developments. It seems that my roommates have actually seen this cat and another one before, they like to hang out on our porch, and have always ran away from my roommates, until now. Apparently I have just been oblivous to this fact until now! They think they might belong to a neighbor of ours who they have seen calling it. But you never know. I'll continue to be friendly to it. I had thought about the idea of putting some shelter for the cat. But if he does belong to someone I don't want to keep him straying from his home. If I get the chance I'll ask the neighbors if the cats are theirs. So, mystery possibly solved, but I still hate the idea of that poor kitty out in the rain! I'll post updates Thanks again!