Gwenn Wysling has been the Executive Director of Bethlehem Inn, a non-profit providing shelter and aid to the homeless population in Central Oregon for over a decade. On April 27 it was announced that the organization would be given a grant through Project Turnkey to convert the Greenway Motel in Redmond into temporary housing for people experiencing homelessness.
Bethlehem Inn has experience converting hotels into shelters, as they did with their Bend location in 2007. Listen to learn more about the challenges facing homeless people in Central Oregon and how it is being addressed.
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βBend Donβt Breakβ is hosted by the Source Weeklyβs publisher Aaron Switzer and co-hosted by Laurel Brauns. Every week, we feature a guest from the community with a new perspective on living through the COVID-19 pandemic including mental health professionals, economists, educators, artists, business people, local leaders and historians.
This article appears in May 12-19, 2021.








Thank you Aaron for bringing attention to this issue, and thank you Gwenn for all of your hard work. As someone who has experienced houselessness in Sisters for three of my five years here, every action and conversation that happens matters. These are our neighbors and deserve to be treated as such. Let’s come together as a community/county and solve this problem once and for all.
I also wanted to add that as of today Project Turnkey has helped create 700+ units all over Oregon. That is over 700 individuals and families that will now have a roof over their heads and the services they need to succeed. Let’s keep this momentum going!