Photo by Victoria Gomez.
When James Barclay started out on the Dallas police force in the early ’80s, he was stationed in Oak Cliff, where he was born and raised.
As an officer, he witnessed the negative impact homelessness and mental illness was having on individuals. But he, and many of his peers, were often overwhelmed and unequip to handle escalating situations involving severe mental illness. At the time, recruits received only a day of mental health training before graduating from the police academy, Barclay recalls.
So when it came time to retire after 34 years on the force, Barclay wanted to serve Oak Cliff in a new way, and he went to The Well.
The Well Community is a nonprofit operating out of Cliff Temple Baptist Church that provides services to Oak Cliff residents struggling with homelessness, poverty or severe mental illness. A weekly buffet of programming — free to those who need it — offers members a chance to relax, reflect and build a support network.
“Community is something that is so vitally important to people who are otherwise isolated and lonely,” says Alice Zaccarello, executive director of The Well Community. “It’s a place to get involved with activities, and a place to celebrate holidays … And anytime we get together we always serve a meal.”
Oftentimes, the food served at The Well is the only hot meal an individual will have that day, she says.
Mondays through Wednesdays, The Well sponsors a Community Life Center at Cliff Temple Baptist Church. From 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., community members have access to a computer room, art lessons or self-help instruction, books, instruments and case management resources.
Obtaining an ID, for instance, can be difficult for those who may not have access to a Social Security card or birth certificate. Helping community members get an ID, or access other resources like health care or food stamps, is assistance that “goes a long way.”
On Thursday nights, community members gather for a worship service.
“We are an open community, so people can be involved in whatever portion of what we do that they want to be involved in,” Zaccarello says. “If sitting and participating in devotionals or a worship service is not their thing, that’s all right by me.”
But for many of The Well’s community members, connecting with the devotionals and sermons each Thursday offers orientation through challenging times.
A member of The Well Community since 2009, PT is known as a gentle, soft-spoken man with a skill for the piano. But he spent years bouncing around transitional housing, always on “defense mode.”
Four years ago, The Well invited PT into Jacob’s House, a group home run by the nonprofit that can house up to seven men. It’s a “small answer for a huge problem,” says Zaccarello, who says finding safe and affordable housing is one of the biggest challenges community members face.
The house, which is only a mile from the Cliff Temple Baptist Church, serves “higher functioning individuals” who benefit from the community format of the house.
“Houses I’ve been in before have been run down, hot in the summer and cold in the winter,” PT says. “With Jacob’s House, you can take an eraser and erase all that.”
The house is named after Jacob in The Bible, a man who experienced homelessness and moral struggle but was forgiven by God for his sins. It’s a story PT knows in its entirety.
“We’re kind of like Jacob,” he says. “We have solid gold here.”
Another member of Jacob’s House, Carl Wiggins, says the home is “a group of brothers.” He has lived at the house for eight years after experiencing bouts of homelessness and transitional housing.
Wiggins enjoys cooking for the house, and the men take turns picking nightly movies that are accompanied by popcorn, soda and pickles. Wiggins prefers watching documentaries and uplifting movies.
After spending years “homeless and hungry,” the routine is a level of dignified stability he struggled to find before The Well.
“This is a home; it’s not a shelter,” Wiggins says.
Zaccarello says most community members found The Well through “word-of-mouth.” While some community members live in transitional housing or apartments, many are homeless.
One of the biggest threats faced by the unhoused is weather, she says. Despite The Well’s efforts to prepare community members for inclement weather, members have died during freezes and heat waves in years past.
For Zaccarello, the loss of a community member is as difficult as a loss within her own family.
“During inclement weather, I constantly worry about our people,” Zaccarello says. “The first day we were open (after a freeze in January), I asked one of our guys ‘How did you do?’ and he had just gotten out of Methodist because he had frostbite.”
Most individuals who visit The Well end up coming back, she says. But when a regular stops showing up, concern is felt by everyone.
Barclay says he has “been out in cars” in recent months looking for a community member, Donna, he first befriended when he began volunteering with The Well nine years ago. She stopped coming to The Well at the beginning of 2024, and Barclay hopes she is “somewhere living with family,” rather than anything sinister.
What started out as a volunteer opportunity in retirement has turned into a weekly Tuesday shift for Barclay. In nine years, he estimates he has missed six Tuesdays. Zaccarello is “pretty sure” Barclay schedules his vacations around his volunteering.
“People are missing out by not knowing (the community members),” Barclay says. “These people just give me something.”
