A garbage truck driver has been charged with dangerous and negligent driving, after the death of a man in a Redfern laneway on Monday morning.

Police allege a 35-year-old man was driving a garbage truck along Bourke Lane about 8am when he drove onto the footpath, running over a homeless man who was sleeping on a mattress out the front of a home.

The driver called emergency services, and police arrived to find the man critically injured.

Despite the efforts of emergency services, the man died at the scene.