A week after moving in, Will and Phyllis Gile have finally settled into their new apartment at Unity Gardens off Route 115 in Windham. The television’s hooked up, furniture in place, and pictures hung on the wall. Their pug, Mitzi, still runs about excitedly unsure what to make of her new home. But for the Giles, their bright new apartment in a housing complex designed exclusively for the elderly is certainly a welcome change to their old apartment in Portland.

“We just love it,” Phyllis says of the new apartment. “I don’t know what to say. It’s just wonderful.”

Noisy neighbors and a lack of security prompted the Giles to move from their former residence in Portland. And so their daughter Madonna Brown closely followed the progress of Unity Gardens since Avesta Housing began on the project last fall.

“I heard about it through the grapevine and called up Avesta before they broke ground on the building,” said their daughter Madonna Brown.

Brown and her husband Everett, who helped the Giles move into their new apartment this week, said they now feel more at ease with the couple a short distance away from their home on Falmouth Road.

“I feel much safer knowing they’re not 45 minutes away,” Brown said.

Paid for by state and federal agencies, Unity Gardens is the latest senior housing complex to be built by Avesta. The 48-unit complex, complete with several community rooms, a library and an outdoor garden space, serves as an alternative for many seniors who can’t afford greater Portland’s high-priced housing market, but at the same time, don’t want to lose their independence by moving into a nursing home, says Gary Crowell, regional manager for Avesta.

“(Unity Gardens) allows them the privacy of their own apartment and the opportunity to share community space and be a part of social activities,” Crowell said. “And it really helps them keep their living expenses down because the rent is affordable.”

However unlike a nursing home, there is no 24-hour staff on site. Instead social service staff is available, Crowell said, to check in on the tenants as needed.

At the tenants’ disposal is an elevator, coin-operated laundry on both floors and full kitchens in the apartments. But with the Senior Meals on Wheels program and Senior Congregate Meal scheduled to make their new home at Unity Gardens, tenants won’t have far to go to get a hot-cooked meal.

Though they have yet to meet many of their new neighbors, the Giles said they are happy to be in a housing complex that caters to seniors like themselves and are pleased with how “people-oriented” and helpful Avesta has been.

“It couldn’t be better,” Will Gile said.

Will and Phyllis Gile lounge in their new apartment at Unity Gardens. The Giles, and their dog Mitzi, were the third tenants to move into Avesta