Apache: access denied because search permissions are missing

Do a chmod +x on your user dir, and restart apache. 755 permissions should work. I've had problems with 644.

If in the case of selinux being the issue, rather than just disable it, this page and this page give the command to grant access:

chcon -R -t httpd_sys_content_t ~/public_html/

You might have selinux enabled. Try

getenforce

If it shows "Enforcing", try

setenforce 0

and try if this fixes your issue.