In the case of the landlord, like any other business, when a client (tenant) does not perform on their fiscal obligations, (i.e pay their rent on-time or kite a cheque) the landlord is injured by the lost opportunity over an above recovery of a dishonoured payment fee.With our commercial tenants - which are not governed by the Residential Tenancies Act, we assess a late fee ($50) and charge interest on overdue accounts at the rate of 1.75%/month.

Many states allow for the recovery of attorneys fees in situations like this, even if there isn't a provision in the lease allowing for collection costs.

I budget for these as a normal business expense, I do not therefor lose any real money during a vacancy and have no recovery time.  

The statute of limitations in small claims cases varies from two years (for breach of an oral agreement) up to four years (for breach of a written contract, like a lease).Lastly, even if you decide not to go through with a small claims case, I would suggest you at least consider reporting their debt to the credit bureaus through a company like one of these: Mr Landlord Debt Reporting Service or Rent Recovery Service. 

Property damage recovery risk is a challenge regardless and I would imagine a little worse with section 8. 

I've given judgments to collections agencies- I estimate about a two percent recovery rate.

Some states allow partial recovery of the rent from the time it was vacated without notice until you find a new tenant.

The recovery is extremely slow, if not non-existent. 

The security deposit will not even come close to covering the make ready costs.We 'could' go after him but in reality it would be 'good' money after 'bad' as he has no job and the filing fees would probably be more then any recovery we could get (if any!).

-Bankruptcies: one chapter 7 bankruptcy dischard/date settled 07/2007-Judgements: 1 settled in 2015 by the same recovery company for the medical collections