VANDU boss says Will and Kate need to see Downtown Eastside without a royal clean-up

Vancouver Area Network Drug Users' president Laura Shaver says she's okay with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge stopping on the Downtown Eastside because of the reason behind their visit to Sheway, a pregnancy outreach program. 

"They're coming strictly to see Sheway and continue the work of Princess Diana," said Shaver. 

• DTES mother gets chance to meet Duke and Duchess of Cambridge
• Royal tour planners create "narrative," says expert
• Is Will and Kate's Canadian tour a celebrity appearance like any other?

In the early 1990s, Prince William's mother Diana opened Sheway's equivalent in Scotland.

The charity offers healthcare and social services to pregnant women and young mothers. 

Shaver said she probably wouldn't have been as open to the visit if it was a DTES tour, believing it would be a "hey, come look at us, we're in the zoo, see what we're like" event. 

"I still have that feeling of we're not a show but because of why they're going to Sheway, I feel differently than if the city wanted to clean us up and parade them down the street."

Shaver said "it's cool" that William and Kate will look around Sheway. 

"It's really awesome. If there's somewhere that they want to see, that's the place." 

Not everyone open to the royal visit  

Anti-poverty activist Jean Swanson isn't as welcoming. 

Upon hearing about the royal tour, she said, she thought the "trip should be cancelled and all the money could go into building housing for people on the Downtown Eastside." 

Swanson said there are 972 homeless people in the area. 

Any effort by the city or Vancouver police, she said, to move them out of the neighbourhood would be nothing new.  

"They spend hundreds of thousands of taxpayers' money on city workers, city trucks and cops who come around every morning and make people move. So, it wouldn't be new if they did it. It would just be a continuation of what they do every morning," said Swanson. 

Heritage Canada is organizing the royal tour. 

City of Vancouver staff said there has been no request to polish up the city.