I just got the Alfaville people, which I was not aware they were selling individually (as opposed to as a part of their Architectural Scene package) from Objects Online. At $15 each character it seems a very reasonable price, and definitelly cheaper than the time I spent looking for free alternatives on the web.
Each character has parameters for 3 hair styles, like 10 leg positions including two sitting, like 10 arm positions, head rotation, and material parameters for just about everything. So each little guy or girl (John and Vera are dressed casual, Mark and Rachel more office-like) can be used as several different characters in the same rendering. And you can actually compose people interacting, shaking their hands, etc.
The mac models at least seem to have lost their extensions at some point during zipping and unzipping so there is a bit of extension typing to do, but other than that they seem to be excellent.