it's harder to access than I thought but it's still available - it's for google business accounts though, so scratch that. I used it internally so wasn't aware of the conditions.
It's not just for google business accounts, they just made it even more difficult to find for personal accounts. I ran into this about a week ago.
In GMail, click the tile icon > More > Even more from Google > scroll to Home & Office > Sites. From there you can create Google Sites for personal use.
In GMail, click the tile icon > More > Even more from Google > scroll to Home & Office > Sites. From there you can create Google Sites for personal use.