Pretty much everything you've done to this point has told him he can do what he wants and the only thing you'll do is threaten him.You can offer him cash-for-keys and buy your way out of this mess but it also rewards the tenant's bad behavior and sets up the next Landlord for failure.

We don’t have a behavior problem.

I say move on and do not enable the X tenants behavior.

The previous owner allowed that sort of behavior.

Ridiculous that guys like this are actually rewarded for bad behavior.

In an effort to be a “good” landlord the property manager went as far as to remove trees the tenant did not prefer.After the most recent 5-day notice, the tenants behavior became increasingly aggressive.- The tenant formally complained that a faucet was now dripping as if to imply that the home was un-inhabitable due to this.- The tenant demanded the ability to pay rent via direct deposit.- The most recent event displaying the tenants state of mind is they texted the property manger that rent would be available for pick up at the home in 48 hours.When the property manger went to home the male tenant repeatedly loudly screamed to attract witnesses why the property manger was coming to their home and harassing them.

You've written quite the lengthy post about this tenant's behavior, damage, and lack of payments, but then you essentially say that you're not sure you want to take serious action against her because you don't want to lose her gov't money.

Either of these behaviors will seriously limit your ability to get the benefit you need to achieve short-term and pursue long-term goals.  

I also consider tenant behavior: do they pay on time, lease violations, noise complaints from neighbors, etc.

I hadn't put any thought into people's actual behavior.