Apartment developers are finding ways to pay for new construction projects–without using loans from traditional banks. For years, multifamily developers have relied on large, short-term loans from banks to finance the construction of new apartment buildings. But rising interest rates and a string of banks failures—most prominently Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and First Republic Bank—have thrown a shock to capital markets.

Up and down the West Coast apartment construction sites are falling quiet despite high demand in a worsening housing shortage. Fewer multifamily projects have broken ground this year from Seattle to San Diego in one of the slowest starts to apartment construction in a decade. In San Jose, no apartments have broken ground after more than 7,000 started construction last year. In Seattle, 3,433 apartments started building in the first six months, a drop of nearly 60% from the same time last year.