tenant at fault repair

[Robert D.]

so i have a section 8 tenant in one of my rentals. she is a good tenant. about a month after she moved in we had the plumbers come out and roto rooter the main line leaving the house. i didnt mind. the cause for this instance could have been anyones, not to mention it hadnt been cleaned out in a few years. no biggie. 5 months later i needed to call out the plumber again. this time the main cause of the plug was someone was flushing down those sanitary wipes, which are not biodegradable. this is purely the tenants fault obviously. bill totalled $300+. she has no way of paying this as she stated. housing authority has her locked in for 2 years from begining of the rental contract. i dont necessarily wanna give her the boot, but this is a business.

my real question is: she wants me to take it out of her deposit, then she claims she will replenish the deposit once tax time comes around, around feb- march 2013. is this legal for me to do? i live in california if that helps. thanks in advance once again! you guys have been an enormous help to me in the past.