Not cold enough in Sheffield

It wasn't cold enough in Sheffield this week. Not by two degrees.
Apparently, so I was told this afternoon, Sheffield City Council has a policy for housing homeless people temporarily when the temperature goes below -4 degrees C for 3 consecutive days - four beds are suddenly made available, which is bound to solve the whole problem of rough sleeping in Sheffield. But a few nights ago it was only -2 degrees C, so that solution was no good for the man who approached Soup Run volunteers, freezing cold and with nowhere to go.
The Council emergency number was rung. They answered. But there was another problem, besides the insufficient level of cold. The individual concerned had actually been housed temporarily the previous night. The next morning he should have gone to the Council offices to be interviewed - presumably to establish how dire his need had been. But he had not gone. So now he was on the 'not to be housed' list. It was not possible for him to come off the 'not to be housed' list. It was not possible for him to explain over the phone why he had not gone to his interview. There was nothing the Council could do about it.
There was nothing the Soup Run volunteers could do about it, either, beyond giving the man a sleeping bag, so he could sleep outside in the snow, because it wasn't cold enough in Sheffield for emergency sleeping arrangements to be put in place. And in any case, as the man had missed his interview, he was no longer deemed eligible for help.
I know none of this first-hand, but I do know that the Soup Run volunteers who told this story are experienced in trying to help people without homes. The Council has a lot of experience too, and their outreach workers with rough sleepers do a lot of good under frustrating conditions. But in this case, it seems to me that someone has badly missed the point. By more than two degrees.