You can invite people to live with you now, just talk to alleyway attackers and after some time you'll get the option. Though you need Lilaya's permission first....Think there's supposed to be a method of getting people to move in without enslaving them, but that's a planned feature, not an added one last I checked.
I didn't test this extensively, so I don't know about any limitations, except that it doesn't seem to work on your children.