I can't determine whether more Canadians would be homeless, but without CERB, there would have been a lot of people going without income for periods of time when the country was under lockdown and businesses were ordered to close. Not everybody was eligible for EI, and some would have been eligible for EI at a lower replacement rate than what the CERB provided, so yes, there would certainly have been a significantly higher level of financial distress in 2020.
