Since December 2025, CASA (Community Accommodation & Support Agency), Mackay, has been one of four community organisations delivering support for early intervention referrals made by property managers, facilitated via PM Assist.
Here, Emily Mereu, Case Manager & Governance Officer and General Manager William Stafford share their experience with PM Assist from a case management perspective as well as an organisational level for CASA as a community organisation delivering specialist homelessness services.
After consent has been given by the tenant and an early intervention referral is made by their property manager via PM Assist to CASA, Emily will usually pick up the phone for the first engagement and intake assessment with the client.
With the main issue already identified by the property manager, Emily will run through a series of questions with the client to determine the current risks and pressures, existing supports, and the assistance the tenant requires.
“From an intake perspective, when we receive an early intervention referral from a property manager, generally the household being referred to us is experiencing income and financial pressures. It’s usually an emerging situation, and the client has a lot of self-awareness of where they’re at.
It can sometimes be uncomfortable for them as they’ve never been in this situation before, but through loss of employment, health concerns, those kinds of challenges, they find themselves needing help. For these clients, often they’ve already started to get a plan in place, like seeking new employment, so the readiness for change is there.
They are likely to be managing most areas of their tenancy well, and perhaps rental arrears is the main challenge. From here we can really create that change to stability for them in their tenancy in an intensive 6-8 week period. In this time, we are likely to access brokerage for them to address the rental arrears, whilst putting them on pathways to financial counselling and future rental subsidies, for example.
After this initial period, I’ll then stay in touch as a check-in and for accountability. I find the clients really appreciate the check-in, especially if they have a limited support network, as I’m then routinely available to them to bounce ideas off and to support them to stay on track.”
When considering how this type of initial engagement is different to their main programs intake process, Emily shares, “When we meet a client who is beyond an early intervention referral, they are usually in a crisis-driven state. It might be a breach or long-term hoarding, for example. They might have been living in that situation for a long period of time, even years, so they are unlikely to be immediately ready to make changes.
Because the client’s challenges are more complex and the instability in the tenancy is entrenched, the level of support is much more in-depth. It can take quite a bit longer to build rapport, and we might have a 3-month support period as the goal, which can sometimes stretch well beyond that point due to complexity across different domains in their world.
For a handful of PM Assist referrals, the clients have had more complex situations, and in these cases we’ve been able to refer them into our HomeStay program to ensure a continuum of support from CASA so we can deliver the best outcome for the client.”
As a dedicated and experienced Case Manager who has delivered support across a range of CASA programs, Emily shares the positive impact of delivering early intervention case management support via PM Assist.
“I think it has brought more balance in my world. Crisis-driven case management support is integral in our sector. But when a client’s situation has dramatically escalated, it is very intense, reactive crisis management. It’s a lot to take on, and you could sometimes be working with families for 6-12 months before you see them achieve stability.
This model of early intervention has reinforced to me why early intervention is so important. It takes pressure off our other programs, as we can deliver outcomes in that first two or so months of the support period. It means we can more quickly close out the intensive support for them so we can commence working with another client.
And the good news is we won’t be seeing that same household down the track in one of our other programs when they’ve reached crisis, at which point we would then be needing to seek housing for them. All because they were able to get a small amount of targeted support when they needed it to get them back on track. That’s really fulfilling work.”
When asked about the changes William has seen for Emily in the type of case management she is delivering for clients referred by their property managers via PM Assist, he shares,
“Anyone in the community services sector knows that the work is going to be hard. And we’re okay with the work being hard. What makes it really difficult is when you’re finding it difficult to achieve outcomes. But if you can get the results quickly, you can also fill your cup up pretty quickly.
That’s what we’re about at CASA: getting results for the community of Mackay, and we’ve found PM Assist referrals have been an effective way for us to achieve results efficiently, while also identifying people just starting to experience challenges that put their tenancies at risk of failing.
For example, if someone is visibly experiencing homelessness, we will engage with them via our outreach and general intake programs. But with PM Assist, property managers can alert us to tenants who are doing it tough well before they would come through our doors when things have reached crisis for them. It makes it easier for people experiencing challenges to access our services and allows us to deliver support to keep them housed in their rental property.
Tenancy sustainment is cheaper and better for everyone. It’s better for the taxpayer, better for our staff, and it saves the client from reaching crisis point. It’s a very welcome innovation.”
With 61 early intervention referrals received from property managers by CASA so far, William also shares how PM Assist has delivered a pathway to build a positive and purposeful relationship with the local real estate industry.
He says, “We’re both working in tenancy sustainment, just from different angles, so PM Assist has been great in opening up the pathway for us to work together in this way. It’s been fantastic to align our work so closely with the private rental market, and it has allowed us to demonstrate our professionalism to them, which the property managers have really responded well to.
What’s more, we’ve been able to develop strong working relationships that are leading to other unintended outcomes. Like getting head leases for clients in some of our other programs, leading to more housing outcomes than just tenancy sustainment for our clients.
PM Assist is a tool that does great referral work, but its innovation leads to much more than that.”
Key Outcomes So Far
- 61 referrals have been received via PM Assist and over 95% of clients engage in the support delivered by CASA Mackay.
- 58 referrals progressed to active support of which 28 were single-person households and 30 were family or couple households.
- Over 90% of tenancies have been sustained with all other clients offered further in-person support through CASA Mackay’s HomeStay program from which one accepted and successfully transitioned into CASA’s Immediate Housing Response program.
Pictured here: Paul (Tenancy Skills Institute), Kristy (First National Mackay Sarina and Nebo) and William (CASA Mackay).
Find out more information: CASA Mackay | PM Assist