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Is it easier to colonize asteroid belt since water and minerals are easily available?

Gravity still is a problem, but all the resources needed to build colony and sustain life are easily available on lot these asteroids. Also water is great for shielding solar radiation which means on some of these asteroids underground colonizes can pose a lower hazard compared to solar radiation on planets like Mars or our moon.

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Not sure re: "easier" but the sci-fi book series (TV now also) "The Expanse" talks a lot about the human colonization of "the belt" and even the morphological "low G" changes humans would have over time. Pretty interesting even for fiction.

Is gravity actually a problem if the colony is underground and the asteroid is spinning?

Spinning would only result in a ring inside the asteroid having the desired gravity. Still might be pretty good though. Not sure what the cost would be to create the desired spin for a reasonably sized candidate asteroid.

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