Despite having hundreds of supportive housing units in the pipeline, the lack of a near-term solutions to the state’s largest drug market has residents and officials considering more forceful options for an area that many stakeholders are calling Wu’s Wasteland.

The mayor’s office is maintaining its course around the Mass and Cass drug market now rooted in Atkinson Street, taking a housing focused stance with shaky funding but some hope for a more permanent solution. That’s years away, however, and in the meantime the neighborhood’s residents and civic groups look to law enforcement and the justice system.

The long-term housing plans from the city have more or less taken shape at this point, with 676 new units of supportive housing either planned or already under construction. Over a third of those are already being built in projects at 140 Clarendon Street and 3368 Washington Street.

A $16 million grant from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development is also slated to fund almost 300 new units of permanent supportive housing in the next three years.

The city’s funding for recovery and housing programs, murky as it may be, does seem to be primarily sources from one-time federal grants. The path to maintain those programs in the future isn’t clear, and the controversial Roundhouse shelter has been fending off funding shortfalls since last fiscal year.

The state budget may be a solution.

Boston services the unhoused from all over Massachusetts, and State Senator Nick Collins had unwavering confidence that state funding would appear to fill the gap at a June meeting of the Mass and Cass working group.

“I don’t think resources are going to be a problem, both due to the great federal efforts by our governor and continued support from the Senate. Funding’s not getting cut off,” he said.

Even the best-case scenarios don’t have city housing programs kicking in at scale for years. In the interim both area stakeholders and city officials are looking to the justice system to keep things under control via expedited courts, stay-away orders and even forcible institutionalization.

Those softer methods are already underway. Homeless Court is a small scale courthouse convened regularly at recovery sites to help clear warrants that might be holding people back from housing or employment.

Stay-away orders have been distributed more frequently in recent months by the courts, meant to circumvent the delayed court dates and universal bail plaguing standard trials. Assigned primarily to people distributing controlled substances in the area. Those under the orders would face stricter penalties if they return to the market.

More controversial is the use of Section 35 orders, forced institutionalizations. Courts and law enforcement have been reluctant to employ them, but as time goes on and efforts to curtail the drug market fail, they’ve become a persistent topic of discussion.

“If there’s a 911 call that’s the government intervening, involuntarily. If emergency services shows up with narcan paid for by the government for someone that’s horizontal, they should be placed, even if it’s involuntary,” said Collins. “They shouldn’t be saved, woken up and then just maybe go to the emergency room. That’s not a sustainable plan. We need a more sensible policy on intervention.”