In SunDog, you'd start out without much cash, but you also started with a spaceship. Now, in order to keep the spaceship you had to fulfill a contract. To fulfill that contract, you had to make money to keep the ship going, and you had to explore a bunch of planets. The spaceship was reasonably roomy, could land on planets, and had a large all-terrain vehicle for exploring the surface and bringing back cargo.
I could see not needing an apartment, if I had an FTL spaceship like that.
The same was true in Elite. In Elite II you inherited (tax free) from a recently-deceased relative 100 credits plus an Eagle starship.
Despite the game's apparent freedom, it only gives you one option - to take the ship and go. You can't, for example, sell the expensive space ship, re-invest it into the fish processing plant you work in and use the proceeds to live like a king on the poverty-stricken planet.
I could see not needing an apartment, if I had an FTL spaceship like that.