RTFH Conference Award winner brings lived experience to work at BVC Navigation Center

By Gary Warth

Feb. 4, 2026

Andre Weese keeps a watchful eye on things at the Buena Vista Creek Navigation Center in Vista.

“I really like to know what’s going on around here,” he said with a lighthearted laugh as he scanned a computer screen that showed images from cameras strategically placed around the grounds.

Weese is the security and intake coordinator at the navigation center, which includes a 48-bed shelter operated by the nonprofit Retread Housing Services under contract with the cities of Encinitas and Vista.

After stepping out of his upstairs office, a staff member spotted Weese and, instead of a casual head nod common at average workplaces, threw arms around him in a hug.

That kind of appreciation for Weese isn’t uncommon, and it goes beyond the grounds of the navigation center. In December 2025, Weese was recognized with an RTFH Conference Award in the Intake/Shelter Team Worker category, which had 16 nominees from several organizations.

“His job title is security coordinator and intake, but he really just goes so above and beyond that in every capacity,” said Pete Haggard, program director at the navigation center.

“He’s just like a real, loving, warm and welcoming presence for everyone who comes in, and I think that’s a super big bonus to our team,” he continued.

“The clients love him. Whenever they come in, directly from experiencing homelessness on the streets or in the car or whatever, the first person they’re going to see is Andre. He welcomes them in and asks them what they need.”

There are times when a new client comes in and recognizes Weese. Not from a past stay at the shelter, but from Weese’s own time experiencing homelessness.

Andre Weese gets a hug from a fellow staff member at the Buena Vista Creek Navigation Center. Photo by Gary Warth

“Having people coming in directly from the streets, I just know exactly what it’s like,” he said about the empathy and patience that comes from relating to clients.

Weese, 42, grew up in Chula Vista and had early experiences with substance use and the justice system.

“A lot of my charges are a blur,” he said. “I did a bunch of different things.”

Weese was imprisoned six times, including a 25-month stay that ended in 2014.

“I ended up staying clean for about seven or eight months, and I met the woman who I’m married to now,” he said about one of the brighter spots in his past life.

But recovery is not easy. Weese relapsed and ended up homelessness in downtown San Diego for a few months. One Friday in 2015, he was arrested and spent five days in jail, giving him time to become clear-headed.

As he walked out of jail he found his mother, his girlfriend and her mother waiting for him.

“They said, ‘All right, you can go into the street and chase whatever you were chasing, or you can come sleep on the couch,’” he said. “For the first time in my life, I made a wise decision and took them up on it. I got a job, got a room for rent, got my first car, got my license and kind of built up my life up here in North County. I didn’t want to lose the people I cared about.”

Weese and his girlfriend married in 2017 and the couple lived together in Escondido. He was sober for three years when he happened to see people experiencing homelessness outside their apartment.

“I saw some guy on a bike and some girls and some homeless people, and that’s kind of what I was attracted to because it was just kind of my lifestyle growing up,” he said. “I got it in my head that I could help them, but also I think it was just an excuse for me to use.”

Weese began hanging out with the group, and he began using drugs again. His life began to spiral.

“My wife hung on for like a month, just kind of hoping that things were going to get better or I was going to snap out of it, but I didn’t so she ended up leaving to go stay with her mom,” he said.

Weese once again left for downtown San Diego, and his wife and mother once again tracked him down. He had hit rock bottom and said he was in a state of psychosis when he woke up in a room they had taken him to.

“I didn’t remember how I got there,” he said. “They told me the next day I was going to Green Oak Ranch.”

Weese said he didn’t want to go and almost was barred at the gate because of his behavior, but he was admitted and stayed for the residential, faith-based nine-month program that requires eight meetings a week and work therapy.

He graduated, and enrolled in the program two more times. By the end of his third stay, Weese was working as a house manager.

In 2023, Green Oak Ranch Executive Director Hannah Gailey established Retread Housing Services as a sister organization that was not faith-based, allowing it to accept government funding.

Weese was the second person hired to work at the Buena Vista Creek Navigation Center, just after Haggard.

Weese lives on site so he is always ready to handle a problem. His wife lives nearby and the two see each other often, but Haggard said he sometimes has to tell Weese to take some time off because he is so focused on work.

Part of Weese’s job involves communicating with San Diego Rescue Mission outreach workers in Vista and Encinitas. Each city funds a number of beds at the center, and Weese lets them know when any are available.

“I have other roles than the security coordinator, but I’m at the cameras a large part of the day,” he said. “If I’m not at the cameras, I’m in the facility. I walk around. I hear everything. I’m just trying to be aware. If there’s any evaluation of volume, I’m on it.”

Scanning the cameras can reveal something as mundane as a car parked too close to a trash bin, but there have been times when he’s spotted a confrontation.

“There’s also staff everywhere out here,” he said. “They’ll call me and say something like, ‘Andre, courtyard, they’re arguing loud.’ And I’m down those stairs and there in a blink of an eye. And we get it de-escalated and we get it handled, and then we go on from there.”

With a troubled past behind him, Weese is using his lived experience to help others find their own future. While he knows one day he’ll move on, he’s in no hurry.

“It’s been really good,” he said. “I don’t see myself really moving out of here.”

Hannah Gailey, CEO of Green Oak Ranch and founder of Retread, said she watched Weese transform his life and become a dependable, responsible individual.

“He’s been an incredible person to work with, an incredible employee,” she said. “I never, ever worry about him not being there.”

A wall in Weese’s office has rows of certificates for various programs he has completed, a sign of his continual commitment to grow.

“He actually spends most of his downtime learning and continuing his education,” Gailey said. “He’s one of the most motivated, consistent people I have ever encountered.”

Gailey added that if she could create another program at Retread, she would hire Weese to be its director.

Andre Weese stands under inspirational writings in a hallway leading to rooms at the navigation center. Photo by Gary Warth