There is still an option to simply use friend's garden. I don't know about others, but I wouldn't mind letting stranger use mine if asked nicely.

And btw. housing isn't exactly that hard to get for "average player". I play on most populated EU server (at least before SB, not sure how transfers affected it) and got a small house in less than 6 months after I started playing. I actually saw another free plot long before that but didn't have enough gil to buy it.