SHARONVILLE, Ohio — Ohio Valley Goodwill bused more than 300 people from area homeless shelters to the Sharonville Convention Center Wednesday for an evening of holiday cheer.
The 22nd anniversary of the celebration, named "Holiday Hopefest" this year, featured a free meal, dancing with a DJ and a meet and greet with Santa. The activities were designed to lift the spirit of people like Kadena Bonner.
"Just trying to survive out here has taken a little bit of everybody," Bonner said.
Bonner said she, her husband and three of her young children had moved from Versailles, Kentucky back to Cincinnati to help her adult children only to find themselves living in the Bethany House homeless shelter.
"We just found ourselves in a situation," she said. "Husband went into a layoff, and it's just crazy out here with inflation and prices for rent."
Goodwill Shelter and Supportive Housing Director Susie Skeens said high prices have shifted the type of struggles they've been seeing.
"We are absolutely seeing an increase in the landscape of what homelessness looks like in our community," she said.
The demand for services has increased in previous years.
Skeens said the Hopefest was designed to help lift spirits and guide unhoused people toward permanent housing resources.
"People sometimes just need a little help to see that path," she said.
Skeens said they can't help people struggling to find a home without the support of the community.
She urged anyone looking to help to shop at regional Goodwill locations as 85 cents of every dollar go toward community services.
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